Remittances following economic and wartime migration are behind the huge number of remittance houses and entire remittance landscapes that have grown up in Kosovo in recent decades. The houses emulate the style and comfort of the villas of European and American suburbia but also in many respects reflect the local life style, the traditional life of (joint) families, but also the dramatic changes that it is undergoing. A model in which two, three, four, or more brothers build a row of houses—one for each brother—has become popular in the building boom in rural and suburban Kosovo in the last two decades. This article interprets these family projects as an attempt by joint families to adapt to the massive cultural change and globalization that (not only) Kosovo has been going through. As a proactive albeit problematic attempt to tackle the (otherwise) intractable tensions and ambivalences that rapid cultural transformations bring. The adaptation involved is a response to challenge at four levels: First, the growing economic inequality between brothers in joint family households; second, the physical absence of the owners of these houses, who are often living abroad; third, the growing desire for individuation and privacy; and finally, the disintegration/reformulation of the very institution of the joint family. It is unclear, however, whether it is really possible for architecture as agent of adaptation to counterbalance the immense social pressures generated by globalization or resolve the intractable contradictions with which it faces families and individuals.

中文翻译：

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为什么科索沃的兄弟们要建造相同的房子：为了适应全球化的矛盾而建造的房子


近几十年来，科索沃出现了大量的汇款公司和整个汇款格局，这些都是经济和战时移民之后的汇款。这些房屋模仿了欧洲和美国郊区别墅的风格和舒适，但也在许多方面反映了当地的生活方式、（联合）家庭的传统生活，以及它正在经历的巨大变化。在过去二十年里，科索沃农村和郊区的建筑热潮中，一种由两个、三个、四个或更多兄弟建造一排房子（每个兄弟一个）的模式已经流行起来。本文将这些家庭项目解释为联合家庭为适应（不仅）科索沃正在经历的巨大文化变革和全球化而进行的尝试。作为解决快速文化转型带来的（否则）棘手的紧张局势和矛盾心理的积极主动但存在问题的尝试。所涉及的适应是对四个层面挑战的回应：首先，联合家庭中兄弟之间日益严重的经济不平等;第二，这些房屋的业主实际缺席，他们通常居住在国外;第三，对个性化和隐私的日益增长的渴望;最后，联合家庭制度的瓦解/重新制定。然而，目前尚不清楚建筑作为适应媒介是否真的有可能抵消全球化产生的巨大社会压力或解决家庭和个人面临的棘手矛盾。