Module I: Introduction to the field of

Vernacular Architecture
• Introduction to Vernacular Architecture.
• Definitions and Theories,
• Categories,
• Factors influencing Vernacular Architecture.
• Contextual responsiveness: Climatic, Geographical,
Anthropological and Cultural influences.
DEFINITION
The term Vernacular is derived from the Latin word vernaculus, meaning "domestic, native, indigenous”.

• Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available
resources and traditions to address local needs.

• Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in
which it exists.

• It is an indigenous architecture with specific time or place (not imported or copied from elsewhere). It is most
often used applied in residential buildings

• VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE refers to those buildings made by common builders in an informal way,
rather than by architects
• only 10 percent of the buildings in which we live or work are designed by architects, and a huge 90 percent of
the world’s architecture is vernacular.

• In contrast to planned architecture by architects, the building knowledge in vernacular architecture is often
transported by local traditions and is thus more – but not only – based on knowledge achieved by trial and
error and often handed down through the generations rather than calculated on knowledge of geometry and
physics
According to R.W. Brunskill …...
•...a building designed by an amateur, without any training in design; the
individual will have been guided by a series of
conventions built up in his locality, paying little attention to what may be
fashionable. The function of the building would
be the dominant factor, aesthetic considerations, though present to some
small degree, being quite minimal. Local materials would be predominantly
used and other materials being chosen and imported quite exceptionally.”

It can be contrasted against polite architecture

which is characterized by stylistic elements of
design intentionally incorporated for aesthetic
purposes which go beyond a building’s
functional requirements
An early work in the defense of vernacular was Bernard Rudofsky’s (1964) book - Architecture Without Architects:
a short introduction to non-pedigreed architecture.

The book was a reminder of the legitimacy and "hard-won knowledge" inherent in vernacular buildings, from
Polish salt-caves to gigantic Syrian water wheels to Moroccan desert fortresses, and was considered iconoclastic
at the time.

CASE I

Hama - The City of Water Wheels

• Seventeen large water wheels continues to operate
on the River Orontes
• Noria is a “device for raising water”
• In Syria the water Wheels are also known as “the
wailer” for wailing sound generated during the
operation of the wooden wheels.
• Water wheel was the sole technology enabling
humanity to harness large amounts of energy.
CASE II
• Morrocon - Desert Fortresses
• • Fortified village – commonly
called as Kasbahs with small
windows, built high and close to
each other.
• • Kasbahs are a skillful adaptation
to the harsh climate in the hot-arid
region.
• • layout of the Kasbahs, height,
orientation, the use of materials
play a major role in the
temperature regulation inside.
 The Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture

The more recent book Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World published in 1997 by
Paul Oliver of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development, argued that
“vernacular architecture, given the insights it gives into issue of environmental adaptation, will be
necessary in the future to ensure sustainability in both cultural and economic terms beyond the
short term.“

Oliver also offers the following simple definition of vernacular architecture: “the architecture of
the people, and by the people, but not for the people.”
“…comprising the dwellings and all other buildings of the people. Related to their environmental
contexts and available resources they are customarily owned- or community built, utilizing
traditional technologies. All forms of vernacular architecture are built to meet specific needs,
accommodating the values, economies and ways of life of the cultures that produce them…….”
 The Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World defines vernacular architecture as:
“...comprising the dwellings and all other buildings of the people. Related to their environmental contexts and
available resources they are customarily owned- or community built, utilizing traditional technologies.

All forms of vernacular architecture are built to meet specific needs, accommodating the values, economies
and ways of life of the cultures that produce them…….”
Christopher Alexander, in his book A Pattern Language, attempted to identify adaptive features of traditional
architecture that apply across cultures.

Howard Davis's book The Culture of Building details the culture that enabled several vernacular traditions.

Frank Lloyd Wright described vernacular architecture as "Folk building growing in response to actual needs,
fitted into environment by people who knew no better than to fit them with native feeling”.

Hassan Fathy in the design of the town of New Gourna near Luxor incorporated the traditional mud brick
vaults of the Nubian settlements.

Bernard Rudofsky first used the term vernacular in an architectural context, labeled it “vernacular,
anonymous, spontaneous, indigenous, rural, as the case may be”.
Geoffrey Bawa is considered the pioneer of regional modernism in South Asia. Along with him, modern
proponents of the use of the vernacular in architectural design include Charles Correa, Balkrishna Doshi,
Sheila Sri Prakash, Indian architects and Muzharul Islam and Bashirul Haq, internationally known
Bangladeshi architects.

These architects have used vernacular architecture as an inspiration for innovations in environmental and
socioeconomically sustainable design and planning.
 FACTORS THAT DETERMINE THE VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

Vernacular architecture is influenced by a great range of different aspects of human behavior and
environment, leading to differing building forms for almost every different context
1. CLIMATIC & GEOLOGICAL
2. LOCAL MATERIALS USED
•Climate 3. TECHNOLOGY ADOPTED
•Religion
•Community
•Geographical COMPONENTS OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE
•Socio-economic considerations 1.CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES – walling materials and
•Culture construction, foundations, roofing shape, materials.
•Local environment and materials 2.CULTURAL BACKGROUND – geographical location amd
•Construction techniques evolution
3.PLANNING – documented through plans, sectional forms
to show how the internal arrangement of these buildings are
done and how they are revealed on the exterior
4.ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL – windows, staircases, external
and internal ornamentation.
5.OTHER DATA – place, time, context, use, user group.
GEOLOGICAL –

People have different forms of shelter appropriate to different seasons and geographical
locations. The development of different solutions in similar circumstances because of cultural
influences is typical of vernacular architecture. Vernacular Architecture consists of buildings or
landscapes that affirm a distinctive material, affinity for place and holds the promise of achieving a
compatible and sustainable relationship between people, nature and the human built environment,
Tradition has accumulated over the ages wisdom and knowledge and it is our duty to focus the
essence of this genius tradition and use it in today’s environment.
CLIMATE –
• One of the most significant influences on vernacular architecture is the macro climate of the area in which
the building is constructed.
• Buildings in cold climates invariably have high thermal mass or significant amounts of insulation.
• They are usually sealed in order to prevent heat loss, and openings such as windows tend to be small or
non-existent.
• Buildings in warm climates, by contrast, tend to be constructed of lighter materials and to allow significant
cross-ventilation through openings in the fabric of the building.
• Buildings for a continental climate must be able to cope with significant variations in temperature, and may
even be altered by their occupants according to the seasons.
• Buildings take different forms depending on precipitation levels in the region – leading to dwellings on
stilts in many regions with frequent flooding or rainy monsoon seasons.
• Flat roofs are rare in areas with high levels of precipitation. Similarly, areas with high winds will lead to
specialized buildings able to cope with them, and buildings will be oriented to present minimal area to the
direction of prevailing winds.
• Climatic influences on vernacular architecture are substantial and can be extremely complex.
• Mediterranean vernacular, and that of much of the Middle East, often includes a courtyard with a fountain
or pond; air cooled by water mist and evaporation is drawn through the building by the natural ventilation
set up by the building form.
• Similarly, Northern African vernacular often has very high thermal mass and small windows to keep the
occupants cool, and in many cases also includes chimneys, not for fires but to draw air through the
internal spaces. Such specialization are not designed, but learnt by trial and error over generations of
building construction, often existing long before the scientific theories which explain why they work.
CULTURE–
•The way of life of building occupants, and the way they use their shelters, is of great influence on building
forms. The size of family units, who shares which spaces, how food is prepared and eaten, how people interact
and many other cultural considerations will affect the layout and size of dwellings.Vernacular architecture
• For example, the family units of several East African tribes live in family compounds, surrounded by marked
boundaries, in which separate single-roomed dwellings are built to house different members of the
family.
•In polygamous tribes there may be separate dwellings for different wives, and more again for sons who are too
old to share space with the women of the family.
•Social interaction within the family is governed by, and privacy is provided by, the separation between the
structures in which family members live. By contrast, in Western Europe, such separation is accomplished
inside one dwelling, by dividing the building into separate rooms.
• Culture also has a great influence on the appearance of vernacular buildings, as occupants often decorate
buildings in accordance with local customs and beliefs.

The local environment and the construction materials it can provide, govern many aspects of vernacular
architecture. Areas rich in trees will develop a wooden vernacular, while areas without much wood may use mud
or stone. In early California redwood water towers supporting redwood tanks and enclosed by redwood
siding (tank houses) were part of a self-contained wind-powered domestic water system. In the Far East it is
common to use bamboo, as it is both plentiful and versatile. Vernacular, almost by definition, is sustainable, and
will not exhaust the local resources. If it is not sustainable, it is not suitable for its local context, and cannot be
vernacular.
Construction elements and materials frequently found in vernacular buildings include:

•Adobe – a type of mud brick, often covered with white-wash, commonly used in Spain and Spanish colonies
•Bad girs – a type of chimney used to provide natural ventilation, commonly found in Iran, Iraq and other parts
of the Middle-East
•Cob – a type of plaster made from subsoil with the addition of fibrous material to give added strength
•Mashrabiya (also known as shanashol in Iraq) – a type of oriel window with timber lattice-work, designed to
allow ventilation, commonly found in Iraq and Egypt in upper-class homes
•Mud bricks – loam or sand mixed with water and vegetable matter such as straw
•Rammed earth often used in foundations
•Thatch – dry vegetation used as roofing material
•Wychert – a blend of white earth and clay
Vernacular architecture is influenced by a great range of different aspects of human behaviour and environment,
leading to differing building forms for almost every different context; even neighbouring villages may have subtly
different approaches to the construction and use of their dwellings with significant similarities in structural forms.

The way of life of building occupants, and the usage of shelters, greatly influences building forms. The size of
family units, spatial usage, preparation of food, interaction of people and many other cultural considerations
affects the layout and size of dwellings.

Culture also has a great influence on the appearance of vernacular buildings, as occupants often decorate
buildings in accordance with local customs and beliefs.
People have different forms of shelter appropriate
to different seasons and geographical locations.

The development of different solutions in similar

circumstances because of cultural influences is
typical of vernacular architecture.
 VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE – A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION

Vernacular Architecture consists of buildings or landscapes that

affirm a distinctive material, affinity for place and holds
the promise of achieving a compatible and sustainable
relationship between people, nature and the human built
environment,

Tradition has accumulated over the ages wisdom and

knowledge and it is our duty to focus the essence of this
genius tradition and use it in today’s environment.