Some New Approaches to the Study of Rural Architecture in Istra

The aim of this report is to point out some of the problems that arise in the study of Istrian rural architecture. From theoretical and methodological point of view, rural architecture also comprises habits and standards of housing of a particular community. It is the task of an ethnologist to explain these two components of housing, and to determine their mutual relationship. There is a problem of the lack of an established tradition of investigating rural housing in Yugoslavia, particularly inhabitants\u27 behavior and their values in relation to housing. Recently, in addition to studying types of houses and their distribution over a region, ethnologists have become interested in some other aspects of housing in rural areas, or even in suburban and urban areas. These include changes in housing habits and standards due to the influence of industrialization and urbanization. While adjusting to new ways of life, villagers abandon some traditional forms of architecture. One can observe the course of degradation of aesthetical values in housing and an increase in Kitsch and in functional inadequacy, as well as persistence of certain outlived forms of traditional architecture. Ethnological studies of rural architecture deal also with the problem of revitalization of rural areas, which requires interdisciplinary methods of work. This is especially true of rural Istria because little complex ethnological research has been done in this region