Amos Rapoport (28 March 1929,

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

) is an architect and one of the founders of Environment-Behavior Studies (EBS). Ingold, Tim (2002) ''Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology'', Taylor & Francis He is the author of over 200 academic publications in this field, including books that have been translated into foreign languages, including French, Spanish, German, Persian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. He has held honorable and visiting positions in many universities around the globe, is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His work has focused mainly on the role of cultural variables, cross-cultural studies, and theory development and synthesis. His influential book ''House Form and Culture'' explores how culture, human behavior, and the environment affect house form.

Early life

Rapoport was born on 28 March 1929 in Warsaw, Poland. In 1939, he and his parents fled Warsaw and after crossing the USSR, they found refuge in Shanghai, where they spent the war in the Japanese-controlled ghetto. Amos attended the Shanghai Jewish School. Following the Japanese surrender, he emigrated to Australia, where the family settled in Melbourne. In 1955 he graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

. In 1957 he graduated with an MA from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

.Rapoport, Amos (1990) "Science and the Failure of Architecture" in Altman, I. & Christensen, K. ''Environment and behavior studies: emergence of intellectual traditions'', Plenum Press

Academic career

Rapoport has taught at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. From 1972 until his retirement in 2001 he taught at the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscons ...

where he was a Distinguished Professor in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. His main aim was to define the importance of culture in the built environment and architecture, this is especially highlighted in his 1969 book ''House Form and Culture''. He has also held visiting appointments in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Puerto Rico, India, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.K., among other places.

Books

*1969 - ''House Form and Culture'' *1976 - ''The Mutual Interaction of People and Their Built Environment. A Cross-Cultural Perspective.'' *1977 - ''Human Aspects of Urban Form: Towards a Man-Environment Approach to Urban Form and Design'' *1982 - ''The Meaning of the Built Environment: A Nonverbal Communication Approach'' *1990 - ''History and Precedent in Environmental Design'' *2003 - ''Culture, Architecture, and Design''

References

External links

The Amos Rapoport Image Collection of Vernacular Design
collection of over 30,000 images from more than 70 countries. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rapoport, Amos American architects Environmental psychologists 1929 births Living people Polish emigrants to the United States University of Melbourne alumni Rice University alumni University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee faculty American people of Polish-Jewish descent