After a week of thinking about it, I have a few questions and comments.
What is your interest in these dwellings? Spiritual? Practical shelter? Curiosity?
Any of those are certainly valid. I would say mine is a combination of curiosity and practical shelter. I don't ascribe anything spiritual to it, as it isn't my culture or belief system, though, out of respect, I might shy away from building a kiva, given its sacred position in Hopi and Pueblo culture. If I really wanted to build one, I would ask someone in those communities if they felt it was alright. I suppose if I left out certain details, like the sipapu, it might be acceptable.
Single structure or cluster?
Most of these designs are small to medium sized, round or rounded, single rooms. Maybe OK for one or two people, but family that is not raised in it may have some serious trouble adjusting to more than short stays. The large earth lodges are the exception. I am partial to them, first, because their size allows separate rooms to be partitioned around the periphery, and second, I like the high roof in the center with the smoke hole letting in a good amount of light. (The problem is similar to geodesic domes. Medium sized domes are awkward to subdivide. Small domes are, well, small. Large domes are great, but they have a large
footprint and won't work on most lots, unless you can cover most of the lot. Clusters of small and medium sized domes have worked successfully.)
Some of the earth lodges had smaller lodges built outside the periphery, accessed from inside the main lodge through short tunnels. These housed more private sleeping areas or storage. There may be more than one attached lodge and large lodges could also be attached.
The Great Kiva at Aztec Ruins has a ring of large rooms, each with separate outside access as well as separate access to the main kiva. Its roof also rested on four main support pillars, though the roof was flat, rather than a domed corbeled roof or the conical earth lodge roof.
The "earth Lodge" I referenced in my last post was simply a stylized representation of a traditional earth lodge. I am not a fan of such designs, though they seem to be very popular among Native American architects who are adapting their sacred symbols to modern building techniques, rather than adapting the design as a whole. (I suppose that is more noble than mainstream Americans insisting on a Colonial look, or those hideous, to me, vanity homes with the rustic fake stone "worn through " stucco -- the Hollywood back lot look.) The value I saw in the modern, stylized, earth lodge design was how it incorporated modern amenities, like separate bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen etc. I think one could do something similar but using more traditional construction.
Could elements from these designs, and others, be mixed and matched?
I am inclined to say, yes. You can see in the evolution of the different designs that there was little hesitation to adopt new ideas and come up with their own innovations. How about an earth lodge with a corbeled center roof (on Pawnee style multiple posts), or a kiva with a conical roof?
I think that this week I will look into how
wofati elements can be integrated into these traditional designs.