Abstract
We often approach architecture to deal with people’s social identities, as these structures are often the products of communal efforts or institutionalized orders. Nonetheless, we sometimes observe a discrepancy in the architectural homogeneity and the diversity of personalized practices brought forth by architecture. Hence, the built environment possesses often unexplored possibilities to prospect personal identities and biographies. In this paper I intend to scrutinize the role of built structures in the architecture of the persona. From the vantage point of Singularized Archaeology I aim at disentangling a quintessential Icelandic passageway house from the seventeenth century. Doing so, I turn the focus away from the standard debate on form and function of architectural design towards the variety of interpretive possibilities incorporated in the archaeological structures themselves, the building materials, the building processes as well as the relationality of the material assemblages that compose the architecture.
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Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Bjarni F. Einarsson from the Archaeological Office (Fornleifafræðistofan) for his enthusiasm and assistance during the fieldwork at Búðarárbakki. Furthermore, I owe thanks to Gavin Lucas, Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon and Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir for their constructive support and guidance during the writing of this paper. Finally, I would like to utter my gratitude to Charles E. Orser Jr. for his interest in our work in Iceland and assistance in the course of this publication.
This work was funded by the Eimskip Fund of the University of Iceland (Háskólasjóður Einskipafélags Íslands), The Icelandic Archaeology Fund (Fornleifasjóður), Iceland's Energy Transmission System (Landsnet hf), the municipality of Hrunamannahreppur and the Archaeological Office (Fornleifafræðistofan).
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Mímisson, K. Building Identities: The Architecture of the Persona. Int J Histor Archaeol 20, 207–227 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-015-0322-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-015-0322-5