Amos Rapoport

His work has focused mainly on the role of cultural variables, cross-cultural studies, and theory development and synthesis. His influential book House Form and Culture explores how culture, human behavior, and the environment affect house form.

Rapoport was born on 28 March 1929 in Warsaw, Poland. In 1939, he and his parents fled Warsaw and after crossing the USSR, they found refuge in Shanghai, where they spent the war in the Japanese-controlled ghetto. Amos attended the Shanghai Jewish School. Following the Japanese surrender, he emigrated to Australia, where the family settled in Melbourne. In 1955 he graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Melbourne. In 1957 he graduated with an MA from Rice University.

Rapoport has taught at the University of Melbourne, University of California, Berkeley, University College London and University of Sydney. From 1972 until his retirement in 2001 he taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee where he was a Distinguished Professor in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. His main aim was to define the importance of culture in the built environment and architecture, this is especially highlighted in his 1969 book House Form and Culture. He has also held visiting appointments in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Puerto Rico, India, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.K., among other places.