Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 1
·
May 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
Gypsies live even under the ground in pits above which they build a thatched roof.
Their kitchens are located in front of the pit, in the open air
(Taube 1777: I, 52; my
translation)
The level of the house above earth depends on the type of soil they are buried in.
According to some theories, the level would raise with time and a higher standard of life.
Bordei
would be the ancestor of earthen houses, made with diverse techniques of
construction
even out of uncooked bricks.
Today in in the Balkans and more precisely in Romania, Roma/Gypsies are known to
live in the
mahala
or peripheral parts of cities and towns, or even of villages. There are cases
when they live in slums, but this has happened only after the fall of the Communist regimes.
This means that they tend to live in communities, but not necessarily in one single Roma
community. Many different scenarios are possible. In Transylvania, I have witnessed (Munti
Apuseni) small communities living not far from each other, but having nothing in common
besides the belonging to the Roma/Gypsy ethnic minority. The first was composed of well-off
fierari
(iron workers), working hard on different types of wrought iron, keys, horseshoes and
mending diverse items. A few kilometres away I met a ‘very poor’ community of Roma,
living in traditional local wooden houses which were falling apart (had they recuperated them
from Romanians?) and begging each visitor. They were not inclined towards doing anything
to repair a leaking roof or a falling window but would instead set plastic foil above their beds.
Elsewhere, they lived as a community again, in simple wooden or mud house they built
themselves and practised one of their traditional occupations: collecting iron, glass, selling
clothes, etc. Some Roma/Gypsy communities in Romania are actually called brick-maker
(caramidari) and exert this profession, making either uncooked or cooked bricks.
It is not possible to find a house that would be exclusively associated with the
Roma/Gypsies. There is no typical Roma/Gypsy architecture, since they dwell in whatever
type of house is available to them or, recently, if rich enough, ask architects to draw up the
plans for their new palaces.
Perhaps, then, the reason why they choose to build these so-
called palaces today is to break completely from the constructed expectations of what
type
of
housing a Gypsy would choose to live in or have built, considering their historic dwellings.
As we shall see, it is also an attempt to join, symbolically, a cosmopolitan élite.
7
It can be a mix of clay and straw/manure simply piled up in layer or cased or even clay on
wickerwork.
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