are we private or public oriented people?

We Brazilians love to think of ourselves as very outgoing social-oriented people and everyone of us who spends some time abroad complain about how much we miss our social activities. But here is the trick, when we asked people in Brazil and in Korea to tell us how much time they spend in the social areas of their apartments (living room, dining room, varandas) versus private areas (bedrooms), the Koreans are spending 76% more time in the social quarters (3hs21min for the Koreans, 2hs31min for the Brazilians). One can say yes Brazilians are more social outside of home but how to explain the fact that Brazilians spend more time in their bedrooms (9hs21min) than the Koreans (9hs05min). Or do the private life in the apartments do not provide an accurate account of our contemporary life-style? Any thoughts?

50 minutes of family life

50 min is the average time that a Korean family interacts in the same space. This data is not statistically representative but is only the preliminary result of some 60 questionnaires sent to families in Brazil, Korea and the Russia last year whose responses are being analyzed right now. (thank you so much to everyone who participated!)
the questionnaire basically asked people to register in which room (bedroom, living, kitchen, etc.) each member of the family normally is, in intervals of 15 minutes throughout the day. Actually, the questionnaire does not ask if the family is really interacting (they can all be in the same room immersed in individual activities) but assumes that in order to interact people need to be in the same space. Or should we not assume that?
In any case, it is frightful to perceive that we are becoming more and more isolated from one another, a trend that is evident when see each member of the family with his/her own bedroom, own bathroom, own car and own TV. By the way in our questionnaire watching TV counts as interaction if people are at the same space.
More results to follow soon,
More information about the research is available at the Global Apartments Research Group

comparing brazilian and korean apartments

The first difference between Brazilian and Korean apartments appeared when we looked at the spatial arrangement vis-à-vis private versus social areas. While Brazilian apartments show a striking differentiation between private areas and social/service areas, usually separated by a small corridor that positions two doors between the living room and the bedrooms, the Koreans present a large social area as a middle ground with private areas split between two regular bedrooms in one side and one master bedroom in the opposite side. Such articulation creates a striking opposition Public-Private in the Brazilian units and a tri-partite articulation Private-Public-Private in the Koreans. One interesting issue that arises from this observation is the lack of flexibility in the Brazilian case when compared to the Korean plans. The tri-partite solution allows for different family arrangements such as a grand-parent living at home or teenage children having more privacy. That possibility is nevertheless contradicted by the demographic data that show the number of multi-generation family arrangements decreasing in Korea, from 23% in 1970 to 10% in 2000. Meanwhile in Brazil multi-generation families are growing as a consequence of housing deficit and changes in the labor market, forcing young couples to share an apartment with their in-laws or bringing frail grandparents to live with their children and teenage grandchildren.

When we discussed that tri-partite arrangement with Korean scholars (quote names) they were quick to point out what they perceive as the permanence of the traditional space of the “maru”. The maru in traditional Korean housing is the heated space of the kitchen/dining that for practical purposes was places in the middle of two more private rooms (or the contemporary equivalent of bedrooms) so that the warmth of the maru would heat both sleeping quarters. If that tradition have survived the modernization process in the sense that the dining space is still the most important in the Korean apartments, it is therefore logical that such space would occupy a central position. Our space syntax analysis of integration corroborate such idea for the most integrated spaces almost always overlap with the dining room in the Korean apartments.

However, when we look at the strict separation of private versus social areas in the Brazilian apartments, it is reasonable to as why is there not more flexibility in the apartments being built there nowadays. Or would the flexibility be a post-occupancy added feature? With independent concrete structure and masonry walls the Brazilian apartments can be re-arranged to different spatial arrangements easier than the Korean counterparts with many of its walls being poured concrete serving structural functions. Although we would love to be able to enter and document a significant number of Brazilian apartments, our data set cannot adequately answer that question at this point for an interesting follow-up to this research would be to investigate to what degree Brazilian families change the spatial organization of their apartments to the point of changing the internal walls.
Instead, we can discuss the permanence of certain traditions in the Brazilian apartments the same way that the maru have been carried out in the Korean units. In the case of Brazil two features come to our attention regarding the persistence of traditions in the spatial arrangements of contemporary apartments. The kitchen is never open to the dining room and the bedrooms are located in sharp opposition to the social areas.

The articulation of kitchen and dining is almost always the same no matter how large or small is the apartment in Brazil, with a wall and a door separating the cooking from the eating area. That striking separation (unknown in most other small apartments anywhere) has roots in the early urban housing typology in the 19th century and the infamous inequality of Brazilian society. The result of that was and still very much is present in the fact that the one who cooks (maids) are not sharing the dining experience (patrons). Although contemporary labor costs prevents the Brazilian middle-class from having a full-time maid at home, it is still very common to have somebody over a few times a week to clean, do the laundry and cook. In the case that the wife (often) or another member of the household (seldom) are cooking, the center of attention and interaction than moves to the kitchen where many fast meals are served, or in the case of a more traditional dinner everything needed would be brought to the table and the kitchen is somehow disconnected from the act of eating together.