ABSTRACT
Conceptually the house ‘begins’ with the hearth, encircled by a wall and roof that enclose its circle of presence and protect inhabitants from the weather (right). The circular plan does not seem to have derived from an interest in the ideal geometry of a perfect circle but may be construed as rather the least artificial way of separating out a place from everywhere else – an inside from an outside. It is as if the fireplace has been encircled by a wall in the same way as one might circle a paragraph in a newspaper with a red pen, to mark it out and distinguish it from the rest of the page. It is the same arrangement as the henge (or circle of standing stones), which may have had an altar rather than a fireplace at its focus. The house has no windows – the only light would come in through the doorway. In its darkness this house would primarily be a refuge from the outside world, a sheltered bed place, a datum by reference to which its inhabitants would know where they were – at home or abroad in the world.
