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<HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>The Verdurian Drilldown: A Verdurian house</TITLE></HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#C0FFC0" TEXT="#000000"> <!-- VV nav bar --> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr bgcolor="#007000"><td colspan=7 height="5"> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td colspan=7 height="5"> <tr bgcolor="#007000"> <td width="20"> <td width="203" height="50" valign="middle"><a href="virtuver.htm"><img src="illo/vvbase.gif" alt="Virtual Verduria" width="201" height="16"></a> <td width="77" align="center" valign="middle"><img src="illo/vvcrown.gif" width="36" height="21"> <td valign="middle" align="left"> <a href="drill7.htm"><img src="illo/vvleft.gif" alt="Previous map" width="25" height="19"></a> <a href="drill0.htm"><img src="illo/vvdrill.gif" alt="Click each map to view the next one" width="269" height="16"></a> <a href="drill9.htm"><img src="illo/vvright.gif" alt="Next map" width="23" height="19"></a> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td colspan=7 height="5"> <tr bgcolor="#007000"><td colspan=7 height="5"> <tr><td height="25"> </table> <a href="drill9.htm"><IMG Align=left SRC="house.jpg"></a> <p>The picture shows a typical middle-class house in Verduria-city, in which many of the recurring features of Verdurian domestic architecture can be seen: <ul> <li> An <b>intimacy gradient</b>, from the enclosed foyer (<i>ďeratún</i>), to the refined formal <i>audnáe</i> where guests are received, to the big friendly kitchen (<i>rälnáe</i>) where the family gathers and welcomes close friends, to the large shared bath (<i>galináe</i>), to the bedrooms (<i>nuvnáî</i>)-- the master bedroom, the couple's realm, being farthest from the entrance. </ul><ul><li> The <b>focus</b> of the house is the large back structure, containing a kitchen and bath. The family eats and plays in the kitchen; there are attached pantry areas for storage. Verduria's climate is warm, so the chimney is used only for cooking and to warm the <i>galináe</i>. A lower-class house will consist of these two rooms only, with sleeping alcoves. </ul><ul><li> The <i>cayun</i> or <b>toilet</b> is here for convenience, opening to both rooms. It can be cleaned out from the back of the house; or the owners may be fortunate enough to be located near the city's newly constructed sewer lines-- a civic improvement made necessary by the metropolis's explosive growth (it now has over 600,000 inhabitants). </ul><ul><li> A large <b>bath</b> (<i>galináe</i>), whose focus is a pool which extends outside the house into the garden. Verdurians are not modest <i>en famille,</i> and the whole family will bathe together. As in Japan, you don't clean yourself in the bath; you soap up and rinse seated on a stool, and step into the pool only when clean, to relax. (Almean humans, for reasons rooted in <a href="verbio.htm">their biology</a>, are very attached to the water, and rarely live where they do not have daily access to water for bathing). </ul><ul><li> The whole house is bathed in <b>light</b>: every room has windows on at least two sides, often three. All look into the central <b>garden</b> as well. Houses organized round a central garden or courtyard, often with a pool in it, have been a Caďinorian preference for milennia. </ul><ul><li> The bedrooms are built with closets, as well as <b>alcoves</b> that form semi-private niches for the older children, and a quiet half-room within the master bedroom <p>The bedrooms might be extended to a second floor, most likely with an outside staircase to reach them. Extra bedrooms could be used for grown children, or for a grandparent or aunt or uncle, or for a servant. </ul> A <b>richer family </b> might build additional rooms. The order of priority would probably be: a larger and more magnificent foyer and audnáe; quarters for servants; a larger garden and galináe with a pool large enough for swimming; single-function rooms such as a study, a music room, a chapel, or a practice area for athletics. <p><i>My thanks to graženomî Sulbes and Ilimëra Šailey for allowing their home to be used as an example.</i> <hr> <center><i>© 1998 by Mark Rosenfelder</i><br> </center> </BODY></HTML>