Sunday, October 9, 2022

Architecture is Awesome #25: Vernacular Architecture

 
Mugsum mud hut, Cameroon (file licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).
 
This is another in my series of posts inspired by 1000 Awesome Thingsthe Webby Award winning blog written by Neil PasrichaThe series is my meditation on the awesome reasons why I was and continue to be attracted to the art of architecture. 
 
Vernacular architecture is a category of building characterized by high adaptation to local needs and traditions. Typically, architecture we regard as vernacular utilizes pre-industrial, indigenous construction materials and methods, forthrightly addresses climate and geography, and relies upon highly evolved skillsets of local craftspeople. It is very much context driven, particular with respect to its time and place. Most consider vernacular architecture to be absent pretension, and genuine in the sense that it principally evolved through trial and error over many generations, by way of transferred wisdom, the outcome being a culturally distinct built heritage. Vernacular architecture is not the product of academically prescribed “styles” dissociated from regional constraints and the imperatives of site, setting, and context.
 
Most of the world’s buildings are ordinary and vernacular, and not designed by architects. Nevertheless, the range of architectural expression is as broad as the multitude of local building traditions is vast. Just some of the countless examples of vernacular architecture types I can cite include the Kath-Kuni style of architecture in India, the Ma’dan reed houses (mudhif) of Iraq, the Ab-anbar cisterns of Iran, the Mugsum mud huts of Cameroon, and the shotgun houses of the southeastern United States. Each of these examples represent a regionally and culturally specific response to a very particular set of considerations.
 
Bhimakali temple in Himachal Pradesh, India, built in the Kath-Kuni style of architecture (photo by John Hill, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
 
Iraqi mudhif (Photo by Mohamad.bagher.nasery, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
 
An Ab Anbar cistern in a qanat water system, located in the Iranian desert city of Naeen (photo by en:user:Zereshk) 

 
Shotgun houses, Mobile, Alabama (photo by Jeffrey Reed, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
 
Interestingly, many do not believe architecture designed by professionals can be vernacular because, as a Wikipedia article on vernacular architecture notes, they argue the very process of consciously designing a building makes it not vernacular. The article further cites architectural historian Paul Oliver, who defined vernacular architecture as an “architecture of the people, and by the people, but not for the people.”  Oliver elaborated by saying “. . . popular architecture designed by professional architects . . . does not come within the compass of the vernacular.”
 
I disagree with those who maintain that professional architects cannot, by definition, design within a vernacular tradition. Certainly, architects can extend such a tradition by means of critical regionalism, an approach to contemporary design that adapts to local climate, specific site conditions, and the availability of regionally sourced building materials and construction labor. Regardless of whether a building is designed by its users or by trained architects, it should be tied fundamentally to its geographical and cultural setting.
 
The AWESOMEness of vernacular architecture resides in the many socio-cultural, socio-economic, and environmental lessons to be learned by architects like me from its expression across the considerable legacy of historically distinct regional cultures. These humbling lessons are directly applicable to the work we do today. Whether the design-related concerns are associated with respecting nature, ensuring optimal building performance, reducing pollution and waste, encouraging social cohesion, or preserving a cultural landscape, architects should approach each new project they undertake as an opportunity to seriously consider and learn from the established, local vernacular.
 
Next Architecture is Awesome:  #26 Details   

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