Ninth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Two examples of how the social structure can determine the physiognomy of the built environments of the Iron Age will be discussed. The first one is focussed on Wales (United Kingdom) and the second one on Central Spanish Plateau (Spain). A long term perspective is adopted to visualize the changes in urban layouts and architectural solutions that have taken place in both areas during the first millennium BC. The clear differences existing between that regions are emphasized by their respective internal sequences, allowing us to explain the emergence of its models of their specific settlement. The most outstanding point of the study is that it has been possible to synchronize the formal changes perceptible in those built environments with the successive social and economic frameworks in which they arose. This comparative analysis shows that built environments whith a similar formal aspect (as is the case of the hillforts existing in both areas) can play very different roles and be the result of quite different social dynamics. And in the same way, that similar social and economic systems can adopt very different architectural and urban solutions to fulfill both pragmatic and symbolic needs.