Architecture / dwelling
Savoirs de construction, habitat, materiaux locaux et relation maison-territoire.
- Architecture vernaculaire.
- Habitat climatique.
- Transmission des techniques.
Data classification
Ressources liees a Architecture / habiter
Publie – prototype
The Batak of Sumatra: village, communal plowing and dances (Harvard film, 1929)
1 view(s)Not rated
A silent 1929 film made for Harvard's Anthropology Department ("Peoples and Cultures of the World" series), preserved by Periscope Film. In the northwestern highlands of Sumatra it documents a Batak village: pile-built houses with sweeping roofs, faces and silver ornaments, blackened teeth, rice-field plowing done as a team with long pointed sticks, betel chewing, rice pounding, weaving inside the houses, and dances — the ornamented sway of the women, the held poses of the men — to gongs, with volcanoes on the horizon. One of the earliest ethnographic films devoted to the Lake Toba people.
- Territory
- Asia / Hautes terres du nord-ouest de Sumatra, pays batak (région du lac Toba), Indonésie
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Batak (Toba, Karo, Simalungun, Pakpak, Angkola, Mandailing)
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 5 a 15 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Département d'anthropologie de l'université Harvard, 1929 (série « Peoples and Cultures of the World ») — fonds Periscope Film LLC
- Language and subtitles
- film muet (cartons en anglais)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqinui6TOcU
- Date added
- 22/09/2026
Original creator
Periscope Film LLC : archive américaine indépendante qui restaure et met en ligne des films historiques, industriels et documentaires du XXe siècle (chaîne YouTube officielle).
Publie – prototype
The art of the yurt: traditional knowledge and skills of the Kyrgyz and Kazakh peoples (UNESCO)
2 view(s)Not rated
Official film for the 2014 UNESCO inscription of traditional knowledge and skills in making Kyrgyz and Kazakh yurts. Men craft the steam-bent wooden frame, women make the felt covers, chii mats and woven bands; the film shows master-to-apprentice transmission, seasonal migration and the yurt’s symbolism, down to the tunduk on Kyrgyzstan’s flag.
- Territory
- Asia / Kirghizistan et Kazakhstan ; point carte posé côté Kirghizistan (région de l’Issyk-Kul, villages de fabricants de yourtes)
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Kirghiz et Kazakhs (éleveurs nomades turcophones)
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 5 a 15 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- UNESCO (film de candidature 2014, © Foundation « Dialogu Kultur — Edinyi Mir »)
- Language and subtitles
- Commentaire en anglais (sous-titres YouTube disponibles)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fvjX90MfSw
- Date added
- 18/09/2026
Original creator
Chaîne YouTube officielle de l’UNESCO. Ce film accompagne la candidature conjointe du Kirghizistan et du Kazakhstan inscrite en 2014 sur la Liste représentative du patrimoine culturel immatériel de l’humanité (fiche RL/00998).
Publie – prototype
Celebes 1950: from Makassar harbour to Toraja country — tongkonan houses and burial cliffs (Eye Filmmuseum archives)
1 view(s)Not rated
A 1950 colour travelogue preserved by the Eye Filmmuseum (Netherlands, ref. FLM10883): Makassar's harbour and streets, water buffalo, Toraja burial cliffs, villages with boat-roofed tongkonan houses, ceremonial dances, carpentry, sailing praus and Komodo dragons. A rare colour record of Sulawesi in 1950.
- Territory
- Asia / Sulawesi (Célèbes), Indonésie — pays toraja, région de Rantepao
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Toraja
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 5 a 15 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Réalisation Jack Kemp, production américaine, 1950 ; collection Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam (réf. FLM10883)
- Language and subtitles
- Anglais (commentaire d'époque) ; sans sous-titres
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSINc5nKn1w
- Date added
- 14/09/2026
Original creator
Eye Filmmuseum : musée national du film des Pays-Bas (Amsterdam), qui conserve et numérise plus d'un siècle de cinéma ; sa chaîne officielle publie les films de sa collection, dont de nombreux documents coloniaux et ethnographiques contextualisés.
Publie – prototype
The Mongols of Central Asia: horsemen, felt and yurts of the Gobi (1928 film)
0 view(s)Not rated
A silent 1928 ethnographic film compiled by Harvard’s Department of Anthropology and distributed by Pathé Exchange, showing Mongol nomads of the eastern Gobi: catching horses with the lasso pole (urga), horse races, traditional dress, yak and camel transport, felt-making, and the full assembly of a yurt.
- Territory
- Asia / Steppes du Gobi oriental, Mongolie
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Mongols (éleveurs nomades)
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 5 a 15 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Harvard Dept. of Anthropology / Pathé Exchange ; numérisé par Periscope Film
- Language and subtitles
- Muet (intertitres en anglais)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFIWXsoEDMQ
- Date added
- 13/09/2026
Original creator
Periscope Film LLC : société américaine d’archives cinématographiques fondée en 1999, qui restaure et numérise des films historiques rares (industriels, militaires, ethnographiques) et les diffuse sur sa chaîne YouTube officielle.
Publie – prototype
Weaving the Q'eswachaka Bridge: Living Inka Engineering
1 view(s)Not rated
Every June, Quechua communities on both sides of the Apurímac canyon rebuild the Q'eswachaka suspension bridge in just three days, as they have continually since Inka times. Q'oya grass is harvested, twisted into cords and braided into massive cables stretched across the gorge before the old bridge is cut away. Produced by the Smithsonian NMAI (2015) and narrated by MIT engineer John Ochsendorf, the film follows every step through to the celebration dances. The tradition has been inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list since 2013.
- Territory
- South America / Gorge du río Apurímac, district de Quehue, province de Canas, région de Cusco, Pérou
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Communautés quechuas de Huinchiri, Chaupibanda, Choccayhua et Ccollana Quehue
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 0 a 5 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian / Noonday Films (2015)
- Language and subtitles
- Anglais (narration), rituel en quechua
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dql-D6JQ1Bc
- Date added
- 12/09/2026
Original creator
Chaîne officielle du Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.). Film réalisé par Noonday Films pour l'exposition « The Great Inka Road : Engineering an Empire », narration John Ochsendorf, professeur d'ingénierie civile au MIT.
Publie – prototype
A boy’s life in Sarawak: longhouse, rubber trees and the Rajang River (1970 film)
0 view(s)Not rated
1970 film by Dutch filmmaker Michael Rogge along the Rajang River, Sarawak: an Iban boy’s daily life — canoe travel, longhouse living, mat and rattan weaving, tattooed elders, rice planting, rubber tapping and drying, and bartering rubber sheets at the river trading post.
- Territory
- Asia / Fleuve Rajang, région de Kapit, Sarawak, Malaisie (Bornéo)
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Ibans (Dayaks de la mer)
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 5 a 15 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Michael Rogge (film personnel, 1970)
- Language and subtitles
- Anglais
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge3013xK7Nc
- Date added
- 04/09/2026
Original creator
Michael Rogge (1929-2024), cinéaste-archiviste néerlandais : plus de 1 150 films personnels tournés en Asie et dans le Pacifique depuis les années 1940, publiés sur sa chaîne YouTube (chaîne déjà référencée sur le site pour « Les plongeuses ama »).
Publie – prototype
Samoa 1949: fale builders, copra, taro and the stone oven (archive film)
0 view(s)Not rated
Shot in 1949 by the NZ National Film Unit, this film shows Samoan daily life: basket weaving, copra making, church building led by a master builder carrying every plan in his head, the kava ceremony, taro and breadfruit crops, umu stone-oven cooking and the roof craftsmanship of fale builder guilds. (Archives New Zealand.)
- Territory
- Oceania / Samoa occidentales (Upolu, région d’Apia et villages)
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Samoans
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 15 a 30 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- New Zealand National Film Unit, 1949 (réal. Stanhope Andrews) — fonds Archives New Zealand
- Language and subtitles
- Anglais (commentaire), chants samoans
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_kUJQq_qgI
- Date added
- 03/09/2026
Original creator
Archives New Zealand : institution nationale d’archives de Nouvelle-Zélande, qui conserve et met en ligne notamment les films du National Film Unit.
Publie – prototype
Kano, earthen city of the Hausa: caravans, walls and mud-plastering (archive footage, 1949)
0 view(s)Not rated
Silent 1949 British Pathé rushes from the old city of Kano, Nigeria: camel caravans entering the earthen walls, masons hand-plastering mud façades, market streets, groundnut pyramids and the Emir's court. A rare record of Sahelian earthen architecture.
- Territory
- Africa / Kano, nord du Nigéria (vieille ville)
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Haoussa
- Video nature
- Excerpt
- Duration
- 0 a 5 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- British Pathé
- Language and subtitles
- Film muet (sans commentaire)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4zok1NjNBU
- Date added
- 01/09/2026
Original creator
Maison d'archives d'actualités cinématographiques britanniques (1896-1976). British Pathé publie ses fonds numérisés sur sa chaîne YouTube officielle.
Publie – prototype
Kabylia 1959: villages, market and everyday gestures (INA archives)
0 view(s)Not rated
A 1959 French TV report (RTF, INA archives) on Kabylia and its hilltop villages around Tizi Ouzou: open-air market, goat herding, women fetching water, building a house in the traditional way, the village lookout, schoolgirls’ games and traditional dance. A period document, with a commentary that reflects its colonial time.
- Territory
- Africa / Tizi Ouzou et villages de Grande Kabylie, Algérie
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Kabyles (Berbères / Amazighs)
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 5 a 15 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- RTF, « Voyage sans passeport » (1959) — fonds INA
- Language and subtitles
- Français (commentaire d’époque)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrjPRPcHkxg
- Date added
- 31/08/2026
Original creator
Ina Voyages est une chaîne officielle de l’Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA), qui conserve et diffuse les archives de la radio-télévision française. Ce reportage provient de l’émission « Voyage sans passeport » diffusée le 22 août 1959.
Publie – prototype
Raising the chum: a Nenets family sets up its reindeer-skin tent in the tundra
0 view(s)Not rated
Observational film with no commentary, shot in winter with a Nenets family, the last great reindeer herders of the Siberian North. After the reindeer-drawn sledge convoy arrives, every step of raising the chum is shown in order: laying the wooden floor and stove on the snow, lifting the poles up to the crown, hoisting the reindeer-skin covers, packing snow against the base to cut the wind. Life then settles in: family tea inside the tent, and a blizzard day spent splitting firewood and frozen meat with an axe (source: SLICE/ZED notes).
- Territory
- Arctic / Toundra du Grand Nord sibérien, district autonome de Iamalo-Nénétsie (Russie) — lieu exact non précisé
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Nenets (éleveurs de rennes nomades)
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 5 a 15 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Production ZED (France), images Benoît Ségur et Philippe Pothon — diffusé par la chaîne officielle SLICE
- Language and subtitles
- Sans commentaire (échanges en nenets/russe non traduits)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGYonoVALUU
- Date added
- 30/08/2026
Original creator
SLICE : chaîne YouTube officielle diffusant des extraits de documentaires professionnels ; ZED : société de production documentaire française.
Publie – prototype
Desert Bedouin: camp, black tents, bread and coffee (1930s colour film)
1 view(s)Not rated
Rare 1930s colour footage of Bedouin daily life, probably in Jordan or Arabia: a camel patrol, the caravan on the move, women pitching the black goat-hair tents and baking bread, men roasting and serving coffee. Source: official Huntley Film Archives channel (film no. 1093679).
- Territory
- Asia / Désert de Jordanie ou d’Arabie (lieu exact incertain)
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Bédouins (tribus nomades chamelières)
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 0 a 5 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Huntley Film Archives (fonds d’archives britannique, film n° 1093679)
- Language and subtitles
- Film muet (musique d’accompagnement ajoutée)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKhfwcsforM
- Date added
- 29/08/2026
Original creator
Huntley Film Archives est un fonds d’archives britannique indépendant regroupant des dizaines de milliers de films documentaires tournés des années 1890 aux années 2020, mis en ligne à des fins éducatives.
Publie – prototype
Ulaanbaatar and life in the ger: Mongolia in 1968 (British Pathé archives)
0 view(s)Not rated
Archival rushes filmed in 1968 in Ulaanbaatar. Ger districts with fenced yards, Buddhist temples, a folk dance at the National Theatre, and the interior of a ger where a woman in traditional dress cooks on the central stove. A rare record of the ger as a living habitat in the heart of the capital.
- Territory
- Asia / Oulan-Bator, Mongolie
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Mongols (Khalkha)
- Video nature
- Excerpt
- Duration
- 5 a 15 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- British Pathé (fonds d’archives, matériel non monté « Mongolia Today », 1968)
- Language and subtitles
- Muet / sans commentaire monté (rushes) — à confirmer au visionnage
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFgEExJg-Kw
- Date added
- 18/08/2026
Original creator
British Pathé, l’une des plus anciennes maisons d’actualités filmées (1896-1976), a mis en ligne ses 85 000 films sur sa chaîne YouTube officielle. Fonds de référence pour les images d’archives du XXe siècle.
Publie – prototype
A Yagua village on the banks of the Amazon (Smithsonian archives, ca. 1974)
0 view(s)Not rated
Silent archival clip (ca. 1974) from the Smithsonian's Human Studies Film Archives showing a Yagua village along the Amazon River near Iquitos, Peru: riverside dwellings and daily life.
- Territory
- South America / Rive de l'Amazone, région d'Iquitos, Loreto, Pérou
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Yagua
- Video nature
- Excerpt
- Duration
- 0 a 5 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution (fonds Hal et Halla Linker)
- Language and subtitles
- muet (sans paroles)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxUd-i431Hw
- Date added
- 12/08/2026
Original creator
Archives du film en sciences humaines de la Smithsonian Institution ; images tournées par Hal et Halla Linker pour la série TV « Three Passports to Adventure » (années 1970).
Publie – prototype
The Bandiagara Escarpment: Dogon Dwellings from the Sky (INA collection, 2007)
0 view(s)Not rated
These images from the INA collection (aerial rushes shot on 1 November 2007 for the film “Home”) fly over the Bandiagara Escarpment in Dogon country (Mali), a UNESCO World Heritage site. The cliff is dotted with caves where the Tellem, the Dogon's predecessors, built granaries, tombs and places of worship; today the Dogon use these structures as burial sites and build their villages, houses and millet granaries at the foot of the cliff. An exceptional document on a unique vertical habitat. (Source: INA.)
- Territory
- Africa / Falaise de Bandiagara, pays dogon, région de Mopti, Mali (plaine du Séno-Gondo)
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Dogon (et Tellem, leurs prédécesseurs dans les grottes de la falaise)
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 15 a 30 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Rushes du film « Home » (2007) conservés et diffusés par l'INA — chaîne YouTube officielle Ina Voyages
- Language and subtitles
- Rushes sans commentaire (images aériennes)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5mc2MdcYEg
- Date added
- 11/08/2026
Original creator
L'Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA) conserve et valorise les archives audiovisuelles françaises ; sa chaîne officielle Ina Voyages diffuse des documents et rushes de voyage issus de ses fonds.
Publie – prototype
The Guna of the San Blas Islands: Island Villages, Sail and Molas (Smithsonian archives, 1958)
0 view(s)Not rated
This short 1958 archival clip, preserved at the Smithsonian's Human Studies Film Archives, shows Guna (Kuna) life in the San Blas archipelago (Guna Yala, Panama): villages on coral islands, a traditional sailing canoe, a freshwater well, and the molas — the appliqué textiles emblematic of Guna women's dress — and adornments. A filmed glimpse of Guna island living and material culture nearly 70 years ago. (Source: Smithsonian HSFA.)
- Territory
- Central America / Archipel de San Blas, comarque de Guna Yala, Panama (repère indicatif)
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Guna (Kuna), peuple autochtone de Guna Yala
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 0 a 5 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Extrait du travelogue « Rainbow Lands of Central America » de Thayer Soule (1958), conservé aux Human Studies Film Archives de la Smithsonian Institution ; diffusé par la chaîne YouTube officielle HSFAFilmClips
- Language and subtitles
- Film muet (extrait sans commentaire ; description en anglais)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqRrdIBYHfQ
- Date added
- 11/08/2026
Original creator
Les Human Studies Film Archives de la Smithsonian Institution conservent plus de 8 millions de pieds de films ethnographiques ; leur chaîne YouTube officielle diffuse des extraits documentés des collections.
Publie – prototype
How to Build an Igloo: the snow architecture of the Inuit
0 view(s)Not rated
This classic National Film Board of Canada short (1949) shows how to build an igloo using only snow and a knife. Two Inuit men in Canada's Far North choose the site, cut and lay the snow blocks, then shape the entrance: the shelter is completed in an hour and a half. The narration explains how the warmth inside and the wind outside cement the blocks together. As the short winter day draws to a close, the two builders lay out their caribou skins inside, assured of a comfortable night in the heart of the Arctic cold.
- Territory
- Arctic / Grand Nord canadien (actuel Nunavut), Canada
- Skill
- Architecture / dwelling
- Community
- Inuit
- Video nature
- Documentary
- Duration
- 5 a 15 min
- Rights
- Usage restreint
- Direct source
- No
- Relayed information
- No
- Type
- Video
- Contributor name
- Chris Nahon
- Who produced the video?
- Office national du film du Canada (ONF / NFB), réalisation Douglas Wilkinson, 1949
- Language and subtitles
- Anglais (commentaire)
- Lien externe (URL)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3pd-wxNEKQ
- Date added
- 01/08/2026
Original creator
L’Office national du film du Canada (ONF / NFB) est le producteur public canadien de documentaires et d’animations, fondé en 1939. Ce film de 1949 a été réalisé par Douglas Wilkinson dans le Grand Nord canadien.