ABSTRACT
This paper aims to provide the reader with the theoretical positioning of perceptions linked to behavior of culture and the individual. Perceptions are influenced by the status and role of the individual (me) in a community culture (the others). Attention will be drawn to the consciousness of vernacular architecture as not only a social and intellectual discourse but moreover psychological. This is followed by a discussion on social behavior of imitation and conformity within a cultural group. Both the individual and the culture react on a personal level but also in their built environment through imitation and conformity according to their own and their communities’ role and status (Klineberg, 1961: 363). It is argued that an understanding of the perceptions held by the populace within a specified cultural context of vernacular architecture would provide insight that can be useful if a vernacular strategy guides contemporary application. To illustrate the argument the similarities between traditional decorations on mural art form of rural Basotho houses in central South Africa will be observed and can be compared to the contemporary mild steel and iron fences of a suburban area inhabited by mainly Basotho speaking home-owners in the same part of South Africa.
