Social change and transformations in housing

This study aims to illustrate how residential morphology and home-use patterns reflect the transition from semi-nomadism to an urban lifestyle undergone by the Bedouin of the Negev (Israel). Thirty houses and 300 building plans were studied while planners, builders and residents were interviewed. Three types of buildings and home-use patterns were identified. Each type corresponds to a stage in the Bedouin adaptation to urban life in government resettlement towns. The state encourages resettlement by selling developed land at a low price and providing access to subsidies and mortgages, while refusing to develop property and not hesitating to demolish houses built on tribal sites. The houses built over the past 30 years are indicators of Bedouin lifestyle adaptation, as the Bedouin have been increasingly involved in their design. The empirical basis for this study is an analysis of the houses in Tel Sheva, the first of seven resettlement towns built for the Bedouin in the Negev. The houses considered were built between 1972 and 2002, with 1972 marking the beginning of the period in which the Build-your-own-home development scheme was applied to the Bedouin, a scheme in which plots of about 1,000m2 are allocated and owners are responsible for building on them.