I lived in Botswana for almost two years, in the late 1980s. In my village there was a noticeable shift in housing style over time, as manufactured materials (cinder block, sheet metal roofs, chain link fence) replaced their traditional counterparts (mud/dung walls, thatch roof, piled-up bushes).
This shift in building style also brought about a shift in usage.
At the most visible level, round, amorphous shapes gave way to rectilinear layouts.
The organization of family compounds also changed. Traditionally, one would see 2-4 rondavels (round, single-room structures), all linked by a low wall (lolwapa) into an inward-oriented cluster. That got replaced by a single, larger house, presumably with multiple rooms inside.
In terms of usage, you could see the difference best in the middle of the day. This is a desert country, and the modern materials and constructions are a thermal disaster. Thick walls with a lot of thermal mass got replaced by low-mass walls. Uninsulated tin roofs collect solar gains (and radiate heat, becoming uncomfortably cold at night). Thatch roofs also tend to have wide overhangs, providing shade at the side of houses.
As a result, people living in new houses tended to be outside, squeezed under the shade of whatever scraggly trees there were. Those with traditional houses tended to be inside, or sitting in the shade on the kind of built-up seat that runs around many rondavels.
I never priced things out, but the only way to understand this shift had to be as a function of cost. Thatch had to be imported, and I think doesn't last beyond a decade at most. And the traditional walls required a lot more seasonal maintenance.
This shift in building style also brought about a shift in usage.
At the most visible level, round, amorphous shapes gave way to rectilinear layouts.
The organization of family compounds also changed. Traditionally, one would see 2-4 rondavels (round, single-room structures), all linked by a low wall (lolwapa) into an inward-oriented cluster. That got replaced by a single, larger house, presumably with multiple rooms inside.
In terms of usage, you could see the difference best in the middle of the day. This is a desert country, and the modern materials and constructions are a thermal disaster. Thick walls with a lot of thermal mass got replaced by low-mass walls. Uninsulated tin roofs collect solar gains (and radiate heat, becoming uncomfortably cold at night). Thatch roofs also tend to have wide overhangs, providing shade at the side of houses.
As a result, people living in new houses tended to be outside, squeezed under the shade of whatever scraggly trees there were. Those with traditional houses tended to be inside, or sitting in the shade on the kind of built-up seat that runs around many rondavels.
I never priced things out, but the only way to understand this shift had to be as a function of cost. Thatch had to be imported, and I think doesn't last beyond a decade at most. And the traditional walls required a lot more seasonal maintenance.