ancient cities

century, a new mind-set with regard to the planning
and management of urban matters is to
emerge and be nurtured. The municipality has consequently
chosen to open policy-making processes
to greater public participation, for instance,
through the creation of popular platforms of strategic
planning and participatory budgeting. It is
expected that these mechanisms will help pave the
way toward more inclusive and balanced urban
development in Buenos Aires.
Laurence Crot
See also Globalization; Urban Crisis; Urban Policy
Further Readings
Ciccolella, Pablo and Iliana Mignaqui. 2002. “Buenos
Aires: Sociospatial Impacts and the Development of
Global City Functions.” Pp. 309–25 in Global
Networks, Linked Cities, edited by S. Sassen. New
York: Routledge.
Keeling, David J. 1996. Buenos Aires: Global Dreams,
Local Crises. New York: Wiley.
Pírez, Pedro. 2002. “Buenos Aires: Fragmentation and
Privatization of the Metropolitan City.” Environment
and Urbanization 14(1):145–58.
Bu n G a l o W
The bungalow has been described as the single
form of residential architecture common to all
continents. It is a single-story building with a
moderately sloped roof, set in a landscaped, spacious
urban or peri-urban plot, and occupied by a
nuclear family. It is generally interpreted in relation
to modern capitalist industrial expansion and
its effect on settlement patterns and built forms, as
expressed originally in British India. Discussions
of the bungalow have therefore focused on tracing
its origins, evolution, and sociospatial impact.
Etymology
Bungalow derives from the Hindi, Mahrati, or
Gujurati bangla, meaning “of or belonging to
Bengal.” The term was used by Indians and
Europeans in India during the seventeenth century.
Bungalow
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It was anglicized during the eighteenth century,
with the standard English spelling first recorded in
1784. The term was documented in England in
1788, but it was still identified as linguistically
Indian. By the mid-nineteenth century, it was
fully incorporated into the English language.
“Bungalow” is found in at least 10 European languages.
It was first recorded in Australia in 1876
and in North America in 1880. Scholars argue that
the bungalow was popularized in West Africa in
the 1890s. Thus, the etymology of bungalow suggests
a timeline and geography of cultural diffusion.
Yet, most scholars agree that the term built
form and associations have not always been coterminous.
Proposing a single origin and course of
development for the bungalow might therefore be
unproductive.
The Bungalow in India
According to Anthony King, a tropical dwelling
type for European use emerged in British India by
the late eighteenth century. It incorporated features
from four sources: a local Bengali house
form, the non-Bengali Indian appellation “bungalow,”
the adaptation of said form and nomenclature
by European settlers, and the further
development of the veranda under Portuguese
influence. A desire to separate British and Indian
bodies and modes of living lay at the core of the
bungalow’s development. The resulting form, a
large central room surrounded by smaller rooms
and a veranda, translated colonial ideology into
the fabric of home life. Deep verandas protected
an inner sanctum from excessive heat and allowed
for greater control of interactions with “natives.”
Its efficacy was enhanced by placing the building
at the center of a large garden segregated from
Indian settlements. Thus the Anglo-Indian bungalow-compound
was associated with protosuburban
settings like military cantonments, “civil
lines,” and hill stations. Two overlapping architectural
expressions of the bungalow were in place
in the nineteenth century: a sprawling single-story
structure under a pitched roof that referred
directly to Bengali prototypes and a one- to twostory
flat-roofed villa influenced by neoclassical
architecture in England. For a few lucky Indians,
inhabiting a bungalow was a sign of assimilation
into the colonial order. By the twentieth century,