Abstract
House planning should correspond with the natural features and various living conditions peculiar to the region. It seems that the living style in Hokkaido is very different from that in other warm and mild regions of Japan. The object of this paper is to make clear the characteristics. The main features are as follows; 1. In the long winter in Hokkaido, people stay indoors almost all day long. Therefore the time of indoor life in Hokkaido is much longer than that of the warm and mild regions. 2. The various activities, as play of children, social life with neighbors, washing and drying, working and so on, are taken place in the house. The living room is the main space where most of these activities are carried on. 3. Members of a family frequently gather together in the living room and they spend plenty of time there. Accordingly the living room is of great importance as a manifold living space in their houses. 4. Because of this active living in the house, the sitting-form in the chair is more prominent than the traditional sitting-form on the mat, and this brings them using of large-sized furnitures. This living style demands the typical house planning, which is different from that of Japanese traditional houses.
