The New Primitive

The name "Primitive Huts" conjures images of simple dwellings made from sticks and mud, perhaps in the woods. By 1986, when Pfau and Jones presented their version of the primitive hut, nearly 75% of the population of the United States lived in urban areas. Their models reflect the new primitive, the houses that could be built by scavengers living off of the city instead of nature. We have only to look at the vast expanses of slums that lie on the edge of cities to realize the urban scavenger is real and not just a concept introduced by Pfau and Jones in 1986.

Pfau and Jones' idea has only become more relevant two and a half decades later. In 2008, for the first time the world's population was split 50/ 50 between rural and urban dwellers. One billion people now live in slums, and that number is expected to double by 2030. In 2007 Matt O'Brien published a book titled Beneath the Neon describing the lives of hundreds of people dwelling in makeshift homes in the underground tunnels below las vegas. Their homes of crates and milk cartons are yet another version of the primitive hut realized.

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12/08/11

Posted by: Julia Morrissey