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This paper aims to demonstrate a possible way in which cultural elements of minorities, in the specific case of the Romani, can be researched and operationalized in certain guidelines for designing housing intended for these groups. The paper was inspired by a constant failure of the present practice of solving the socially vulnerable Romani housing problems, namely, previous attempts have only achieved a negative outcome that, besides the partial satisfaction of urgent housing needs, does not respect the specificities of the Romani culture and lifestyle. The negative result has once again displaced this subject outside of the designing expertise and demands new examinations of strategical principles that precede the solving of the Romani housing question.

The authors create a methodological turn from the humanistic determination of the term culture towards the anthropological one, forming a clear methodological position of accessing the Romani culture. To test this approach on Romani settlements in Belgrade, this study used on-site observations of everyday life and informal interviews with residents.

As a practical result, this paper presents an operational knowledge base about Romani housing with design recommendations. In the social sense, this knowledge contributes to the scientific description and explanation of the characteristics of Roma housing. In a wider sense, this paper has the potential to shed light on similar problems of minorities that are present outside of the national borders of Serbia.

The topic of Romani housing is insufficiently researched, especially in the region of the Western Balkans. For this reason, the present study and the obtained results represent a significant contribution to scientific knowledge in this field.

Solving settlement and likewise housing problems of socially vulnerable Romani in Belgrade and Serbia still has not found the right design approach. In contemporary plural society, it is a process of interaction of theoretical and practical tryouts set beyond the disciplinary limits. Insufficient awareness on Romani lifestyle elaborated in Romanypen, i.e. the Romani cultural system causes a lack of methods, techniques and tools to choose from and develop for this untangled complex problem. The intent of this article is to show that a collective lifestyle represents the essence needed for developing adequate design decisions of Romani settlements, thus fulfilling the potential for improving adequate housing solutions.

The study starts on the assumption that in Romani settlements there is a strongly rooted relation between spatial and social level that enables an understanding of what this cultural group produces as its own place. The urban pattern of Romani settlements do not have an institutionally imposed organization; they are formed by the Romani themselves, by reflex rooted in needs of everyday life activities and consequently organized and built through inherited knowledge and skills. The subject of this study is aimed at recognizing and thus establishing spatial expressions of the Romani collective lifestyle in three types of Belgrade Romani settlements that, according to the differences in their inner habitational pattern, display a representative model. It is based on the field analysis of five already created and developed unplanned settlements in Belgrade through observing and residing within them and by talking and questioning to their residents.

This study shows that the key to understanding existing urban and architectural patterns, as well as the potential for future design actions lies in reading out the processes of everyday life. Then, it demonstrates a tool that has a potential to divert previous housing politics towards a revitalization of design in relation to social profiles specificities. At the end, the study opens a path to creating adequate architectural and urban parameters for housing care in accordance to the lifestyle acceptable for each and every socially perceptible group.