The article considers the concept of "house" as a core element of "security perimeter" (the term by A. Leroy-Gourhan) on the material of English, Russian and Scottish ballads. Two models of "house" were built, revealing national specificity but, however, remarkable similarities. The main grounds on which these models differ are the overall degree of openness / closure towards the outside world, the clarity of boundaries between loci, the degree of privacy of the inner loci, the extent of the mediator space. It is shown that in both cases, the house is perceived as a highly complicated structure, an open system which internal and external borders are completely or partially pervious in some segments. It causes some vulnerabilities to negative external impacts (of social and supernatural origin) in "security perimeter" and loci of "space under threat" inside the house (and the adjoining protected areas). In addition, it is shown that the "security perimeter" as a complex hierarchical system displays the properties of self-similarity.