Introduction

In thus connecting the social and the spatial, this book contributes to an emerging academic debate from across a range of disciplines including architecture, sociology, geography and urban design (see, for example, Bentley, 1999; Dovey, 1999; King, 1980; R. King, 1996; Lawrence, 1987; Madanipour, 1997, 2003; Markus, 1993; Markus and Cameron, 2002). But, with the exception of Lawrence (1987), these authors cover urban space and the built environment as a whole, and do not make sustained reference to what is perhaps the most essential element of the built environment: the dwelling. Surprisingly, even the newly emerging discipline of housing studies rarely focuses on the built form of housing, concentrating instead on legislative and policy issues to do with the administration, availability, management and fi nancing of housing. It would

appear that matters relating to the design and nature of the built form are perceived as more properly the province of the built environment disciplines of architecture, construction, surveying, and even social history.