VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

Lecture and compiling

By Professor Ar.A.Sivaraman, M.Arch, MCA, AIIA.
Unit 2 APPROACHES AND CONCEPTS

STUDY OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

Systematic methods in the study of Vernacular Architecture includes:
o IDENTIFY SITE - The scope of any study must be defined clearly. Geographical area of the study
should be demarcated clearly.
o BUILDING TYPES – Typologies in the study area to be carefully analysed. Study starts with the
analysis of a single residential unit, then to the buildings in the community, cultural and
industrial use.
o PERIOD OF STUDY - The time of study influences the character of the buildings. For eg: The
period of study has a significant impact on the built form, architectural style etc.

A complete Vernacular study includes operations at three levels:

EXTENSIVE RECORDING - A systematic method of recording relevant details in a superficial way. It is basically the
reconnaissance survey including the visual impacts.

INTENSIVE RECORDING – Survey of selected examples from extensive recording based on Typologies and its
significance in the study area.

DOCUMENTARY STUDY – includes the historic survey, archaeological survey, documentary evidences such as title
deeds, revenue departments etc.

EXTENSIVE RECORDING
Extensive recording involves speedy collection of survey materials in the field. It intends to collect basic
architectural information as revealed in the exterior of the buildings.
PROCEDURE:
1. Define survey area / boundaries for the study

2. Assemble all relevant survey materials ( maps, field notebooks, measuring tapes, pen, butter sheets
etc).

3. Decide on the relevant period of the study to identify their impacts.

4. Decide on typologies – Individual, group / cluster etc

5. Identify the buildings - house no, address etc

6. Mark the orientation aspects, landmarks etc

7. Study the materials usage and classifications identify any reliable features – Inscriptions that may
either relate to the original construction or some period in the life of the buildings which are significant
in the study.
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8. Identify the construction methods adopted such as stone masonry, brick masonry, mud construction
etc.

9. Photographs and sketches to explain the architectural style.

10. Dates of survey and initials for future references

INTENSIVE RECORDING

During the extensive recording, certain building types / forms may be repetitive or resemble certain period or
depict certain economic level of the society. Such typologies are selected for intensive study through the
preparation of measured drawings in a systematic way. It involves two distinct procedures namely measuring and
drawing.

PROCEDURE:
1. Prepare schematic plans, elevations, sections etc.

2. Enlarged details to depict the method of construction

3. Sectional elevations through staircases to provide the overall heights, floor to ceiling heights etc.

4. Dimensions of selected details and photographs

5. Compilation of survey data to prepare drawings

DRAWING:
1. Preparation of scaled drawings to a suitable scale.

2. Suitable size of sheets are finalized with a appropriate title block with the drawing number, date of
drawing drawn, north point, scale etc.

3. Enlarged details to a suitable scale

4. Appropriate lettering and dimensioning of drawings

DOCUMENTARY INVESTIGATION
1. Title deeds of property

2. Taluk Offices / Revenue departments

3. Taxation records

4. History, literature

5. Archaeological survey
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APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

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Aesthetic - Relates to quality, value etc

Anthropological - relationship between family and social structure

Archaeological - reveals indication of architectural elements

Behavioural - relates to the behavioural pattern in relation to the built-up structures and their personal
community eg: urban and rural community

Conservationist - to evaluate the potential of traditional, historical buildings for reuse

Developmental - to relate archaeological and organizational principles and brings technology and analysis in
vernacular buildings.

Ecological - focuses on habitat as part of total environmental system

Folkloristic - compares folk artifacts with the craft skill, custom and benefits.

Historical - examines various influencing forces using documentary records.

Meso-logical - relates to history, similar to historical approach documentation of drawings and verbal
documentation.

Spatial – behavioural and anthropological organization – articulation of spaces and volume.

Structuralism – theories disclosing the functions and meaning of structures.

Generating transformational – methods of defining the systems interlining evolution and change.

AESTHETIC APPROACH

Two distinct approaches:

Ethnographic: To understand the aesthetic dimension in the culture of the building
Responsive : Appreciation of the structure.

Aesthetic approach is the effective aspect of communication.

Utilitarian: Historical, religious, social relation etc. that becomes a point of reference in buildings.
Aesthetic: Appearance and occupation contains aesthetic potential.

The building explains Architectural creation Technology and Form

Gujarat : Decorations in the interiors and exteriors are often utilitarian

English : Finishes reveals use of structural materials.
Japan : Art dominates the decorative elements A comparative study of tradition reveals a rich diversity owing
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to culture and aesthetic dimensions

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A castle in Kyoto, Japan A typical street in a Bohra neighbourhood in Gujarat Daigo-Ji Temple,
The oldest wooden tower in Kyoto.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACH

•Date of the buildings

•Chronological order of the development

•Documentation of changing architectural style over time

•Excavation and recording of ruined structures to collect sufficient detail to allow for accurate
reconstruction.

•Changes / evolution that occurred due to human behaviour and spatial changes.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACH

•Prior to 1960, only documentation of different residence styles were done which remained as artifacts
of tradition and culture

•Late 20th century the approach changed towards functionalism leading to paradigm study of social
organization.

•According to Amos Rapaport – Climate, ecology, material, technology and local economy determined
the settlement pattern pertaining to regional level.

Amos Rapaport in his conclusions

•Factors such as climate, ecology, material, technology and local economy acts as constraints than
determinant which acts as modifiers of form.

•Built forms are closely inter-related to behavioural patterns and cultural values.

•Cultural influence in the form is originated through symbolic conception i.e., notions of the right order
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of relationship within the social, cosmic universe can play an active role in the builds of the house.
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•Objective: a place to live
•Subjective: Climate, materials etc.
•Aesthetic: Social and cultural

BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

The human behavioural patterns of the community, acts as a constraint or as a supportive element in
defining the house typologies.

Eg: In India house typologies are huge as they adopt a joint family system. Houses are grouped together
in large numbers in clusters reflecting their behavioural pattern.

ARCHITECTURAL APPROACH
Manifestations of vernacular Architecture in architectural practice over centuries are many and diverse.
Experiencing them and interpreting them in modern context is the job of an architect. He should try to
gain knowledge based on the documentary evidences collected.

It can be broadly classified into the following:

 Architecture as pictorial or picturesque suggestion of symbolic identities.

 Architecture as determined by climate, nature or function.

 Architecture as an embodiment of experience, emotion, spiritual and ceremonial qualities. Iconic

suggestion or symbolic identity.

 Architecture as a tool to restore and discover the local technology

 Pure form of architecture without change by external influences
 Architectural design to recreate / restore these unadulterated forms – neo vernacular.

METHODS:
•To categorize few aspects of buildings that are dominating for documentation and reuse. Eg: Plan, decoration,
shape of openings etc

•Achieve through traditional materials and building methods to blend authenticity.

•Creation of local identity through architectural traces of the vernacular, at times served a variety of social goals
•In 1940, Hassan Fathy in the Egyptian village viewed it as a builder and a craftsman. It aimed to preserve the
national identity.
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Pigeon is a part of the daily diet in many parts of Egypt and Pigeon houses, or dovecotes, are constructed from
mud brick create an artificial mountainous topography.

The droppings are also a valuable source of fertilizer and the houses are so universal that they are also part of
the Egyptian national identity

MODERN APPROACH

Alternative to aesthetic approach is modern approach. Modern Architecture aims to free from those stylistic
traditions and to create a timeless version of architecture.

Modern approach adopts the following:

•Complexity of various forms

•Expressions could be modern and need not be traditional, material, construction and technology.

•Recreating

•Complication of hybrid forms that occurs in spite of constraints of climate. Materials and forms produce sensory
delight and are spiritually uplifting.

Modern architects felt that vernacular architecture affirm the following modern ideologies:

•Severely utilitarian in use

•Functional, material and technology to adapt to climate needs and effective utilization of site

•Beautiful on the sculptural expression, mass and volume as a result of manipulating the plan and section to
accommodate the users need
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Adolf Loose, F.L. Wright. Le Corbusier – Best Expression

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Rudolf Steiner's The Second Goetheanum, Le Corbusier's chapel at Ronchamp, Notre Dame
1924-1928, in Basel, Switzerland,
is an example of architectural Expressionism.

Walter Gropius – Machine Aesthetics

The Bauhaus building at Dessau, designed by Walter Gropius

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Charles Correa – Apartments in Mumbai

Aimed to enhance quality of habitation without minimizing the prototypes and interpretation of the poetic
sensibility of Architecture.

Bernard Exhibition on “Architecture without Architects” in 1964 went beyond picturesque and conveyed the
following:
•Qualities induced

•Human Scale

•Great Views

•Visual Richness

•Features which heightened social interaction

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ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACH - “HOUSE, FORM AND CULTURE” By “AMOS RAPOPORT”

HOUSE, FORM AND CULTURE

“House Form and Culture” written by Amos Rapoport in 1969, is one of seven books in the “Foundations
of Cultural Geography Series” edited by Philip Wagner

It considers the underlying theoretical constructs that have shaped, and continue to shape, the built
environment, including religion, beliefs, customs and socio-cultural forces at large.

Rapoport’s “House Form and Culture” is a presentation of cross-disciplinary studies of dwellings,

buildings and settlements from architecture, planning and cultural geography.

His basic hypothesis is that “house form is not simply the result of physical forces or any single causal
factors, but is the consequence of a whole range of socio-cultural factors seen in their broadest terms.”

In view of the logical arrangement of Rapoport’s argument, the book is divided into two parts:

Chapters 1-3 are for the defence of the primacy of culture which discusses the nature and definition of the field,
alternative theories of house form and the socio-cultural factors and house form.

Chapters 4-6 explains the modifying influence of other factors such as climate, construction materials and
technology and a look at the present.

The foundation of Rapoport’s book was laid on the intellectual debate of the meaning and characteristics of folk,
primitive, and vernacular buildings on one side, and modern buildings on the other–possibly even forming a
continuum.

Rapoport argued that “primitive” buildings were produced by “primitive” societies which had a “diffuse
knowledge of everything by all” with elementary technology.

The book linked behaviour and form, and theorized that built form has influence on behaviour, not in a
causal manner but in the way of “coincidences.”

Rapoport claims that “climate and the need for shelter” determine the form of dwellings.

His balanced view on the impact of climate on house form is commendable; after giving enough
evidence on the supremacy of culture over climate in determining house form, he submitted that “it is a
characteristic of primitive and vernacular buildings that they typically respond to climate very well.”

Chapter 6 - “a look at the present”, presented the relationship between house form and culture from the
“primitive” to the vernacular and 1960s modern period.

He noted that in the past there were hierarchies in society which were legible on built forms but at the
time of writing there was “the general loss of hierarchies within society,” resulting in the reality that
“all buildings tend to have equal prominence.”

According to Rapoport, “modern man has lost the mythological and cosmological orientation which
was so important to primitive man, or has substituted new mythologies in place of the old.”
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Rapoport again demonstrated his balanced sense of judgment when he maintained that “both”,
“primitive” and “ modern” times have myths that may be different but are commonly motivated by
being “primarily socio-cultural”–however still claiming that the “neglect of traditional cultural
patterns may have serious results”.

AMOS RAPOPORT’S HYPOTHESIS:

 “House form is not simply the result of physical forces or any single causal factor, but is the
consequence of a whole range of socio-cultural factors seen in their broadest terms.
 Form is in turn modified by climatic conditions and by methods of construction, materials available,
and the technology.
 Rapoport notes “the socio-cultural forces as primary and all other forces as secondary or modifying”.

FACTORS IMPACTING HOUSE FORM

1. Climate 2. Materials, Construction, and Technology 3.Site 4.Defence 5.Economics 6.Religion 7.Cultural

FACTORS INFLUENCING HOUSE FORM

1. CLIMATE
Imperatives of climate as determinants of form for shelter

2. MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION, AND TECHNOLOGY

Evolution of form gives way to various materials and techniques available –i.e. the progressive
development of the cave, to the circular hut, to the rectangular hut in its various forms.

3. SITE
Influence of site on house form –hilly terrain, ecological determinism, lack of land, etc.

4. DEFENSE
Tight / closed settlement patterns as a form resulting from defense-needs

5. ECONOMICS
Exerts constraints on house development, but does not account for house form

6. RELIGION
Anti-physical determinism (neglecting material factors) - attributes form of houses to religious or
spiritual views and beliefs; orientation, plan and spatial arrangements may be affected by religious
beliefs; raised on stilts or underground can also be attributed to religion

7. CULTURAL
Socio-cultural forces may include religious beliefs, family and clan structure, social
organization, way of gaining livelihood, and social relations between individuals. Social organization
may reflect the varying relationships between or varying needs of genders or different age-groups.
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Athabascan -summer hut

Cappadocia, Turkey –cave dwellings

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Marsh Arab dwellings, Iran

Eskimo –winter igloo

Uru dwelling, Peru -reeds

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Arab tents -sticks + felt

Yaguadwelling, Amazon -wood + thatch

Masai dwelling, Africa -wood + thatch (+ mud)

Santorini, Greece -barrel vault roofs

(stone...concrete)
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Hillside dwellings

Pueblo clustered dwellings

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