How building materials affect vernacular architecture?

Vernacular architecture has important characteristics such as durability and versatility, hence the need to select construction materials in the closest environment. Vernacular architecture is a construction made outside of any academic tradition and without professional guidance. This category covers a wide range and variety of building types, with different construction methods, from around the world, both historic and current, representing the majority of buildings and settlements created in pre-industrial societies. Vernacular architecture makes up 95% of the built environment in the world, as estimated in 1995 by Amos Rapoport, compared to the small percentage of new buildings each year designed by architects and built by engineers.

The daily activities of the human being are the essence of sustainability, the way they live, act, work, produce, plant and build. This study is useful for built environment professionals who are active in the construction industry and who are responsible for green building delivery decisions during the design and construction stages of buildings. More recently, vernacular architecture has been examined by designers and the construction industry in an effort to be more energy conscious, with contemporary design and construction as part of a broader interest in sustainable design. Vernacular architecture has the essence of sustainability to be the link with buildings that are most respected by the environment.

Vernacular architecture was designed in direct response to locally available material, such as bamboo, straw, sticks, mud or turf for construction, which were more energy efficient, inexpensive, affordable, readily available, and even required less labor. The use of blocked entrances, the non-authorization of vehicles near buildings, the control of meetings, the detection of weapons and the drilling of personnel for violent events should be regular safety principles employed in health institutions. In fact, it can be argued that the very process of consciously designing a building makes it non-vernacular. Similarly, areas with high winds will lead to specialized buildings capable of coping with them, and buildings tend to present a minimum area to prevailing winds and are often located in a low area of the landscape to minimize potential storm damage.

To solve the problem of roofing, builders had to create new shapes according to the physical characteristics of the brick - the arch was the brilliant solution. New urban planning strategies were established to adapt to the vibrant style of modern life, where reticulated iron planning, large streets, prefabricated plots, new building materials and high-rise buildings replaced the traditional fabric, neglecting heritage architectural aspects of cities and the cultural values of society. While traditional architecture was in harmony with environment, climate, geography, landscape and human psychology, along with successful coexistence, the treatment of architecture as a holistic natural living element, remained still but functioned, similar to trees as an inventory of organic living environment with prudent use of materials, form and construction technology. In a predictive way, vernacular architecture offers the greatest potential for the development of a viable contemporary regionalism of consistent high quality, capable of providing many types of buildings, both old and new.

The size of family units, who shares what spaces, how food is prepared and eaten, how people interact, and many other cultural considerations will affect the distribution and size of housing. One of the most important influences on vernacular architecture is the macroclimate of the area in which the building is built. Buildings take different forms depending on rainfall levels in the region, resulting in stilts in many regions with frequent flooding or rainy monsoon seasons. .

Arnold Kinsland
Arnold Kinsland

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