ABSTRACT
The differences in satisfaction level between Apaches living in the Payson housing designed with anthropological input and new housing in other Apache communities designed without anthropological input are instructive. The Payson Project was a piece of a larger, long-term community development effort whose goal was to improve the overall life conditions of one particular Apache group. The designs would have to meet the Apaches’ needs as understood from the Apache point of view; at the same time, the design decisions had to respect their right of self-determination. The architects began the planning process by following some of the same assumptions about needs that were considered in designing middle-class American homes. The variations that they anticipated were of the same order as those qualities that identify each real estate listing as unique—the number of bedrooms, the size of each room, the number of bathrooms and closets.
