Spatial and Cultural Dimensions of the Houses of Omdurman, Sudan

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of a concurrent investigation of extant housing patterns and daily domestic habits conducted in an urban Sudanese context. A combination of standard social sciences' research procedures and a modified space syntax/graph theory technique are employed to investigate society-space relationship. The social study reveals gender division in the conduct of activities and use of space, whereas the spatial analysis highlights a morphological pattern of gender segregation in the Sudanese house. The findings suggest that applying both spatial and aspatial methods of analysis is invaluable for eliciting and interpreting society's cultural norms.