The Negro-African dwelling corresponds to a total architecture by which everything is "said": the conditions of the environment, the economic determinations and the social relations, the fundamental conceptions. The diversity of its fashions far exceeds the diversity that material conditions impose. Beyond the variety of achievements, common characteristics are nonetheless apparent: - These constructions are built to the measure of man, the human body determines their dimensions and proportions. - They materialize social relations in space and delimit the places of collective appropriation.