VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

Ar. RAMESH KUMAR A

 UNIT 2 –
APPROACHES & CONCEPTS
IN
VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE
APPROACHES AND CONCEPTS
Aesthetical approach
Anthropological approach
Architectural approach
Geographical approach
Spatial approach
Ecological approach
Behavioural approach
Developmental approach
1. AESTHETIC APPROACH
Two distinct approaches to architecture can be termed as
aesthetic in one the ETHNOGRAPHIC – the efforts are to
understand the aesthetic dimensions in the culture of the
builders and uses of traditional architecture.

ETHNOGRAPHIC – to understand the aesthetic dimensions

in the culture of the builders and users
of traditional architecture

THE RESPONSIVE – the effort is to select neglected

buildings and to bring them in to the
circle of consideration.
EXPRESSION
Expressive characters in buildings

Expression- Ulster farm house – Ireland

Expression
Ornamentation/ decoration- artistic expression
Exs . Indian temples and Nubian houses
English parish churches remained constant for a
millennium while the decoration around the
openings and the eaves shifted in time to signal
the changes in the style
Exs. - Ireland and turkey
Plain exterior – utility
Interior – lavished with color, texture and pattern,
framed pictures on the walls, flowers in the
windows, shelves laden with gleaming metal and
ceramics.
Japanese tea house- technology and form
RESPONSE
Observations and interviews how people
feel about the buildings they see and use.
Interpretations
Conservation
Consumption – builders are appreciated
entirely in accord with the observers
structure of value, no effort to study the
builders intentions.
Factors determining Aesthetic Approach
Color
Scale
Proportion
Rhythm
harmony
The Idea of Aesthetic
Effective aspect of communication
Enlivens feeling, exciting the pleasure of the
senses.
Architectural communications – divided in to
utilitarian and aesthetic components.

 Utilitarian – bodily work, provide shelter,

cultural work
 Aesthetically – its appearance and occupation
contain aesthetic potential, historical or
religious
2. ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACH
The scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and
the physical, social, and cultural development of
humans.
• Homological space
• Family system
• Rituals and ceremonies
• Life style • Symbolism
• Customs and attitudes • Role of men and women
• Economic activity • Society and community
• Caste • Religion and mythology

Anthropology is the branch of science which deals

with the study of culture or a society
 Buildings as cultural artefacts reveal the relationship of
dwellings to family, social structure and more..
But now anthropology deals with functionalism
In investigation the influence of physical and social
factors such as
Climatologically
Ecological conditions
Available materials
Technological knowledge
•
Local form of economy - The actual impact of the
houses depends on local perceptions – what is
considered to be basic need by a given society
The limits impact of physical and economic
conditions leads on to the influence of socio
cultural factors
Built forms are closely interrelated with
behavioural patterns and cultural values
3. ARCHITECTURAL APPROACH
Technological and organizational principles are bring
techniques of analysis to vernacular buildings
Vernacular architecture has had significant and
continuing influence on architectural practice
throughout its history
Practicing architects have been influenced by vernacular
architecture through direct sensory experiences
incorporated in to their aesthetic sensibilities
The influence of research on practice has taken many
forms, as a result of the many approaches used by
architects to study and conduct research on vernacular
architecture
The types of architecture derived from vernacular
sources can be broadly classified as follows
Architecture as an iconic picturesque evocation
of symbolic identity
Architecture as determined by climate, material
or function
Architecture as the embodiment of experimental
emotional sensory and spiritual characters
ICONIC EVOCATION OF SYMBOLIC IDENTITY:
Architects whose work is an iconic and
picturesque evocation of symbolic identity
often share assumptions with folklorists and
preservationists who view the vernacular
architecture in terms of regional types
These types are seen as pure and wholesome
and are contrasted with imported architectures
which are bought of as unsuited to local needs,
conditions, identity
The focus of research based on these
assumptions is to discover locally derived pure
forms without impurities of distant influences
• A pictresque archetype of the vernacular is constructed
through rigorous categorization of a few aspects of a
buildings such as the plan and most common features of
the elevation, decorative details or shape of the
openings
• Scholarly documentation identifies details which act as
symbols which reproduced and which lend authenticity
to a new architecture
• Regional architecture typologies were constructed in
the belief of that vernacular architecture reflects the
character and soul of a group people
• In the last decades of the 20th century, pictures
interpretation of the vernacular have occurred in many
parts of the world – “FOLKLORISTICS”
CLIMATIC, MATERIAL AND FUNCTIONAL
ASPECTS
• Vernacular architecure’s aesthetic success was
presumed to be the result of superbly rational
response to locally available materials, climate
and requirements to use.
• Modernist architects approach vernacular
architecture focused only on those aspects of
which supported ideological positions.
They concluded vernacular architecture as –
• Severely utilitarian in its use of materials and
technology
• Functional in its adaptation to climate,
accommodation of activities and utilization of site
• Beautiful in its sculptural expressions of mass and
volume as a result of manipulating the plan and
section to accommodate users needs.
• F.l. wright describes vernacular architecure as
folk buildings growing in response to actual
needs, fitted into environment by people who
knew no better than to fit them to it with native
feeling
• Modern architects looked for and found
simplicity of form in vernacular architecture, the
experimental approach focussed on the
complicity of hybrid forms that occurs in spite of
the constraints of similar materials and climate
• The forms they looked for and found in vernacular
architecture produced sensory delight and
interest and spiritually uplifting
• The Combination of Vernacular Architecture with
Modern Architecture is what called as
“CRITICAL REGIONALISM”
The experimental approach to the vernacular retain many
qualities and design principles of modernist architecture
such as –
• Open planning
• Non – symmetrical composition
• Complete spatial articulation in plan
• The use of modern materials and construction methods
• The goal of experimental approach is to show the
quality of habitation, to create places where inhabitants
will feel at home
• The qualities that show the art of dwelling can be
learned from vernaclular architecture without mimicking
vernacular prototypes
• The experiential approach to vernacular architecture
requires an interpretation of vernacular through the
poetic sensibility of the architect