Why Do People Live In Square Houses?

[nina]

Well this thought occurred to me last night. We are organic shapes, our natural form is curved, and we're used to viewing our world as a flat surface with a large dome. Why then, have we created a society out of straight lines and squares? It is so unnatural and just feels wrong. Imagine if all the rooms in your house were circular and domed. I guarantee it would feel so much more natural. Are the straight lines a result of needing a way to measure things? Could we only measure things with straight lines before mathematics? Is it just a functional thing, in that squares fit together more easily than circles? Is it some other simple or complex reason I'm missing entirely? To be honest, I think that this society should be completely rebuilt around circular aesthetics. I believe society would be more peaceful if we took steps to nuture our souls, and reconnect with nature and our natural forms. I mean, so far, we've been building a society based on many things...but what about catering to our most basic instincts, and continuity with nature. Everyone should start out by building just one circular, domed room in their home. It's not much, but it's a start. Break out of the box. Throw the cubes away. Spheres are the future.

[Mes Tarrant]

Interesting thought. I think you're right that we would feel more at ease around circular objects. One reason that pops into my head when I think about why we're all rectangular and stuff is that it optimizes space. If you had a completely circular room, you would only be able to walk around comfortably on a tiny area of the floor since the rest of it would be curved up. You wouldn't be able to reach the walls properly. The ceiling would have to be much higher to make up for the height that's lost when it curves downward. Also, if you had an adjacent room to it, there would be a lot of space lost underneath the connection (picture two circles touching). That's a huge problem, unless you want to modify your definition of a circular room.

[nina]

Interesting thought. I think you're right that we would feel more at ease around circular objects. One reason that pops into my head when I think about why we're all rectangular and stuff is that it optimizes space. If you had a completely circular room, you would only be able to walk around comfortably on a tiny area of the floor since the rest of it would be curved up. You wouldn't be able to reach the walls properly. The ceiling would have to be much higher to make up for the height that's lost when it curves downward. Also, if you had an adjacent room to it, there would be a lot of space lost underneath the connection (picture two circles touching). That's a huge problem, unless you want to modify your definition of a circular room. Yeah I should have been more clear. It's hard because in my mind it's so clear so I'm leaving some things out in my explanation. Basically, the dome would be at or just above eye level. So the curving of the ceiling wouldn't be a space issue. And the dome would be slightly recessed, into the wall so that you can set lights around the ledge and cause it to be lit up ambiently...sort of like at twilight. Also, I thought about the space thing. But don't think about it as trying to make two circles fit together. Because you can't. Think about it as building around circles. So a house wouldn't be one big rectangle. It would be a series of circular and domed rooms connected to one another through hallways or something like that.

[Serkat]

Yes, in a perfect world I would agree with you. However, expensive houses are expensive. Probably you could keep the square basics of building (consider architecture, cost, physics etc. it's SO much easier) and then provide custom mods for rooms, like curved walls and all that. You could make that from like plastic with wall texture and paint over the connection lines and BAM you're done. It would need mad skillz though. Ahhh, circular walls... no dogs pissing at your corner anymore.

[nina]

Hey...we gotta start somewhere!

[Serkat]

You could start up a business that sells architectural room add-ins. For the room corners (especially the ceiling) there would need to be a plastic piece in different sizes to make it a round corner, make different versions of that, very stylized with customized texture and dimensions. Glue it to the wall by a professional and make it fit in with the room. Would look pretty cool.

[Mes Tarrant]

I think I see what you mean now. A bit. A drawing would be nice! So like the bottom half of the dome would be square, like it is now? Are you talking about a design that's similar to some churches or mosques or whatever, where they have a normal room and then the ceiling is all circular with paintings on it? Yes the expense is also an issue.

[nina]

I think I see what you mean now. A bit. A drawing would be nice! So like the bottom half of the dome would be square, like it is now? Are you talking about a design that's similar to some churches or mosques or whatever, where they have a normal room and then the ceiling is all circular with paintings on it? Yes the expense is also an issue. No squares. Imagine a circular room...the floor is circular. Extrude the walls up several feet, and top off with a dome. Make sense now? It's just like, a planetarium.

[Moonbeam]

I used to drive by a round house where I lived before; it was cool. Kind of like a hobbit house. We would need new furniture too. What the heck, if we get a whole new house we would want new furniture to go with, so that's OK. If you put half and quarter spheres together you could get the roundness with less wasted space where they hooked up.

[Infinityecho]

However, expensive houses are expensive. And that's where I stopped reading

[Taosaur]

Another downside of square houses: the acoustics suck I'm realizing this in my new, square apartment, having previously lived in the top floor of a divided house, where all the spaces were irregular and the ceilings angled, creating a variety of wonderful acoustics for both instruments and sound equipment.

[Dreamworld]

Well I believe you would need a plane to put a picture or something on the wall.

[StephenT]

Well this thought occurred to me last night. We are organic shapes, our natural form is curved, and we're used to viewing our world as a flat surface with a large dome. Why then, have we created a society out of straight lines and squares? It is so unnatural and just feels wrong. Imagine if all the rooms in your house were circular and domed. I guarantee it would feel so much more natural. Are the straight lines a result of needing a way to measure things? Could we only measure things with straight lines before mathematics? Is it just a functional thing, in that squares fit together more easily than circles? Is it some other simple or complex reason I'm missing entirely? To be honest, I think that this society should be completely rebuilt around circular aesthetics. I believe society would be more peaceful if we took steps to nuture our souls, and reconnect with nature and our natural forms. I mean, so far, we've been building a society based on many things...but what about catering to our most basic instincts, and continuity with nature. Everyone should start out by building just one circular, domed room in their home. It's not much, but it's a start. Break out of the box. Throw the cubes away. Spheres are the future. I've thought the same thing many times. While driving through a beautiful piece of country with plains or forests or mountains or whatever around me, then I'll see some big metal structure and I'll realize that everything we create is amazingly ugly and unnatural compared to anything that the earth has produced. We started out with all of the unnatural shapes because of a lack of technology, so the stones that we built with had to be certain shapes, and I guess that the pattern has just stuck. If there's a house that isn't square, people think that it looks very odd or modern. We should break from this habit sometime and adopt the "futuristic" look that has always been around.

[dragonoverlord]

Just wanted to say good thread here. your thinking outside the box

[ChrissyMaria]

Well this thought occurred to me last night. We are organic shapes, our natural form is curved, and we're used to viewing our world as a flat surface with a large dome. Why then, have we created a society out of straight lines and squares? It is so unnatural and just feels wrong. Imagine if all the rooms in your house were circular and domed. I guarantee it would feel so much more natural. Are the straight lines a result of needing a way to measure things? Could we only measure things with straight lines before mathematics? Is it just a functional thing, in that squares fit together more easily than circles? Is it some other simple or complex reason I'm missing entirely? To be honest, I think that this society should be completely rebuilt around circular aesthetics. I believe society would be more peaceful if we took steps to nuture our souls, and reconnect with nature and our natural forms. I mean, so far, we've been building a society based on many things...but what about catering to our most basic instincts, and continuity with nature. Everyone should start out by building just one circular, domed room in their home. It's not much, but it's a start. Break out of the box. Throw the cubes away. Spheres are the future. wow that must be the single most intelligent post ive ever read on any forums, ive always wondered that myself, all organic matter is curved to some degree, some things are straight, VERY few. anyways, great topic BTW to all who say everything has to be a dome, why not cylinders? the ceilings could be flat, and the floors, just not the walls, and from the outside of the structure, a dome shape could be added on top of the flat roof, giving the appearance of a dome, but inside would be a cylinder

[nina]

Thank you. =) I'm strongly in favor of a domed ceiling, because it would mirror our natural environment more closely. Even if we aren't always aware of it, the "dome" that we perceive as the sky is a constant in our world. Therefore I feel that people would be far more comfortable and at peace internally while remaining connected to the world indoors if their bedroom or home had a domed ceiling. I think that Feng Shui is an attempt at bringing people peace indoors through the placement of furniture, items, colors, etc. But I think that it could be taken so much further if people were truly observant of our natural world...and how sadly we seem to cut ourselves off from it. edit: I also feel that the height of the cylindrical walls, where the walls stop and the dome begins, should be in continuity with your typical line of sight in whatever environment this structure is built. For example, if you live in a very flat place, then the walls would be a little shorter, and the dome would start a little lower. If you live in a place where there are lots of hills, then the walls should be higher, and if you live by the sea or can see the horizon lines, then the walls should be very short. Does that make sense?

[george]

Straight walls are easiest to build. Domes are very difficult to construct. circular walls are not too bad, but a straight line is still much simpler and straightforward to construct. Nowadays with more advanced technology we have more liberty on this, although it remains more difficult to build a circular house, or a dome, as such building blocks are (i assume) not produced on a scale that panels are, for example. Also, it is indeed culturally accepted and assumed, that houses are four-sided. There is some breaking of the trend, though...

[Sornaensis]

Well this thought occurred to me last night. We are organic shapes, our natural form is curved, and we're used to viewing our world as a flat surface with a large dome. Why then, have we created a society out of straight lines and squares? It is so unnatural and just feels wrong. Imagine if all the rooms in your house were circular and domed. I guarantee it would feel so much more natural. Are the straight lines a result of needing a way to measure things? Could we only measure things with straight lines before mathematics? Is it just a functional thing, in that squares fit together more easily than circles? Is it some other simple or complex reason I'm missing entirely? To be honest, I think that this society should be completely rebuilt around circular aesthetics. I believe society would be more peaceful if we took steps to nuture our souls, and reconnect with nature and our natural forms. I mean, so far, we've been building a society based on many things...but what about catering to our most basic instincts, and continuity with nature. Everyone should start out by building just one circular, domed room in their home. It's not much, but it's a start. Break out of the box. Throw the cubes away. Spheres are the future. Because humans are fickle critters. We try to make everything conform to a certain view. A certain "box". Plus, the corners made it easier to do your business back before plumping.

[mindwanderer]

I didn't read all the threads but I think the reason is that no mater how large or small a right angle is a right angle. But with different sized houses and round objects everything has to be customized to the curve of your house to fit in....if that makes sense

[Abra]

Cubes are found in nature, too. Just look at crystals... And that's all I got. I find it uncomforting, for whatever reason, to think of the world in circles. Circles and spheres distort (ever look through a magnifying glass, or into a filled fishbowl?), while cubes don't.

[Cyclic13]

If that's the case, the very nature of reality itself is distorted Distortion can sometimes be good. Without it, you can't have perspective, and without some perspective those static four walls can start closing in around you and quickly turn stagnant and seem more like a prison. Self-similar spirals are all around us, all the time... Including the proportions of the human body which we subconsciously use to determine the very essence of what we consider beauty... 1... 1... 2... 3... 5... 8... 13... 21...

[dragonoverlord]

Everybody should live in a hobit home, you know like bilbos house on lord of the rings.

[wer]

Well this thought occurred to me last night. We are organic shapes, our natural form is curved, and we're used to viewing our world as a flat surface with a large dome. Why then, have we created a society out of straight lines and squares? It is so unnatural and just feels wrong. Imagine if all the rooms in your house were circular and domed. I guarantee it would feel so much more natural. Are the straight lines a result of needing a way to measure things? Could we only measure things with straight lines before mathematics? Is it just a functional thing, in that squares fit together more easily than circles? Is it some other simple or complex reason I'm missing entirely? To be honest, I think that this society should be completely rebuilt around circular aesthetics. I believe society would be more peaceful if we took steps to nuture our souls, and reconnect with nature and our natural forms. I mean, so far, we've been building a society based on many things...but what about catering to our most basic instincts, and continuity with nature. Everyone should start out by building just one circular, domed room in their home. It's not much, but it's a start. Break out of the box. Throw the cubes away. Spheres are the future. I've always wanted a dome shaped house. Hopefully I'll live in one someday.

[winterpoem]

in a perfect world we could build anything we wanted. we haven't got there yet, and mankind won't be the one to bring us there. we see the continued failure to do so. but that's another subject. even within a circular house, we can't escape the reality of the suffering and selfishness taking place in the world. but imagining we were there now, studying nature is generally what teaches mankind anything. having forever to learn and practice new ideas, we could do anything, even design communities like those seen in the pictures posted in this thread. something that works very well is usually built with wisdom and is deceiving to look at. but physics and math do not fail. there is a way to do anything. some of us wouldn't like spherical buildings, some of us would. in a perfect world we could build cities of both, and all the better than we do now. and that would be for many reasons, probably tying both efficiency and beauty together, because everyone loves both. now in the world it's nice to see ideas attempted and even come out successful, demonstrating the possibilities are endless. but a lot of other more important matters need to be cleared up before i could find full contentment in living on this planet.

[Universal Mind]

This thread reminded me of a house I always see when I go to Pensacola Beach.