I mean houses in Europe and America have 4 corners (or more) whereas in Africa Natives build round houses (also in Asia afaik).
Do they have any advantages or disadvantages? Or is one solution cheaper, …?
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Consider that, by far, most circular living spaces are made from softer, more malleable materials. Yurts are generally covered with yak or horse hide. Teepees by buffalo skin. Igloos, compressed snow. I visited teff farmers in Ethiopia whose round houses were made of straw and mud. Adobe, mud, canvas…round almost always means temporary.
It’s the transitional shape between tents and houses.
Kivas are stone and adobe. Otherwise, most round houses in the west that are made of stone or wood have specific functions: ice house, game larder, magazine, that have been replaced by cheap, energy efficient refrigeration. Or poured concrete – the molds for which are easier to lay out/build up in straight lines.
It’s cheaper and easier to cut stone into squares. To press bricks into, uh…bricks and to plane your planks long and straight. Log cabins are rectangular for obvious reasons. Although, curved brick fences are far more efficient than straight brick fences. Google em. They’re goofy looking.
Except for wealthy eccentrics and Buckminster Fuller we don’t really make round houses at all anymore. Domed houses are far more efficient energy-wise. But you have to have a fair amount of land to build on relatively speaking. Straight lines are cheap.
Personally, I like the idea of a hexagonal house. Best of both worlds. Someplace to hang all my pictures, you can frame out a window easily enough or hang drywall and it’s resistant to high winds and hurricane weather.
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