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Show Fig. 51 Floor plans found extensively in Utah. (A) Temple form. (B) Double pen. (C) Hall and parlor. (D) Central hall. and make the builder's task practicable. How many choices the builder will have within a given rule set is determined by the restrictions the culture places upon acceptable variation. In some areas of the United States folk builders labored under a severely limited rule set;34 in Utah, however, the compositional options within the tradition appear remarkably open and probably reflect the secure nature of the Latter-day Saint religious communities and the heterogeneous convert population. The rules pertaining to the fenestration of the facade are particularly illustrative of the latitude available within the Utah folk building style. On the whole, folk housing in Utah reflects the regular symmetry wrought upon folk building in the United States by the impact of the Georgian form.35 The preference of external design gravitates toward a bilaterally symmetrical, tripartite model.36 An object is bilaterally symmetrical if it can be divided visually into two identical parts. Inserting a third element between these two halves leads to a construction that is tripartite (containing three distinct components) and yet is still bilaterally symmetrical (dividing the object down the middle continues to yield two identical halves). The house facade in Figure 54 is an example of bilateral, tripartite symmetry. Piercing the facade of the house-that is, making openings for the doors and windows-usually follows the controlling guidelines of symmetrical balance. Upstairs windows (and occasionally doors) are located directly over the lower openings to achieve a facade that is in perfect equilibrium. Utah folk houses generally reflect this desire for order, and the placement of second-story openings over first-floor openings would probably be the first and most obvious choice for piercing the house facade. Within the Utah tradition, however, other rules exist which deviate from this rigidly balanced pattern. Figure 54 represents a fairly typical "hall-and-parlor" (see Fig. 51C) house plan in Utah. Figures 55A-D indicate transformations of the basic hall-and- parlor floor plan in one small Utah town and reveal the extent of compositional freedom within the tradition. Spring City builders achieved visual complexity by effectively playing off the upper against the lower openings. Figures 55A and 55C are unusual and intriguing variations on the ideas of bilateral symmetry and dispense with the tripartite model completely. Figure 5 5D brings a house back into perfect harmony. Though symmetry breaks down completely in 55B, the house remains successful because of the tolerance within the tradition. The mismatching of the facade openings cannot be attributed to naivete or incompetence on the builder's part. Such diversity shows that the rules for facade piercing have been extended to compensate for a deeper confusion within the tradition itself. Two or four openings across the front allow the builder to achieve both internal 49 |