（1995年度　追試験　英語　第５問）

When people travel abroad they are immediately struck by the many different ways in which buildings, homes and cities are designed. A group of Americans staying in a South American country reacted emotionally to the unfamiliar architectural surroundings which they found there. The Latin-American house is often built around a small open area, a patio, which is next to the sidewalk but hidden from outsiders behind a wall. Such relatively small differences in the buildings can affect foreigners to a surprising degree. These Americans complained that they felt cut off from local people and their lives and kept wondering what was going on “behind those walls.”

The division of space inside homes may also vary from one culture to another. Most American homes contain rooms such as bedrooms, a living room and a dining room whose layout reveals the separation and naming of space according to function. This system is in sharp contrast to other cultures where one room in a house may be used for several purposes. In Japan, homes have removable sliding doors so that two small rooms can be converted into one large room, and a living room can also serve as a bedroom.

When a home or a city’s design is influenced by another culture, not only the native architecture but together with it the social pattern can be lost or affected. A French architect, for example, planned a new city in India with centralized shopping areas which required movement by public transportation away from the traditional village centers. The result was that the Indians stopped meeting each other socially in their own local communities. It has been said that “we shape our buildings and they shape us.” The Indian example seems to demonstrate this.

(289 words)