Architectural Anthropology: A Knowledge-Based Approach 1 Sascha Roesler ETH Zurich, Switzerland The origin of my interest in the [emerging] topic of architectural anthropology lies in the question of how the domestic, non-European building can be introduced into the theory of construction. This theory in its current state is greatly affected by the 19th and 20th century industrialization of Europe. Within the theory of construction, it has become customary to think of the evolution of construction as a progress [history] of structures and their respective technologies. With the emer- gence of steel and reinforced concrete, “structure” became the central focus of architecture; techno- logical controllability became a model for all the other aspects of architecture (Giedion 1928). A “determinism of materiality, form and technique” (Oechslin 2002) prevailed in construction. In modern constructive thinking, it has come to an extensive identification of construction with load- bearing structural technologies; construction may thus be identified as load-oriented. The general principle of this load-oriented understanding of construction becomes question- able in the context of domestic, non-European building cultures. The architectural consideration of loads can indeed be detected in all building cul- tures; it is a condition sine qua non of building and a gravitational constant demanded by natu- ral law. However, the structural considerations of loading can receed into the background depend- ing on specific, local and historically contingent problems. The climate, for example, is a “force” (Rapoport 1969) that can lead to thermodynam- ically rather than structurally sophisticated solu- tions. This includes, for example, the thick-walled clay buildings of the Berbers in Morocco (Fig. 1). Fig. 1: Tighremt Ait Hamid, Morrocco. Source: Adam, J., 1981. Wohn- und Siedlungsformen im Süden Marokkos, Munich: Callwey. An extended theory of construction that also involves domestic, non-European building tradi- tions must strive to account for even the most humble of practices and results of human con- struction – acknowledging the “self-built” and not merely structures erected by “architects” and