UNDERSTANDING THE VERNACULAR

Something native and unique to a specific place, created without the help of imported components and
processes, and possibly built by the individuals who occupy that particular place (AL SAYYAD 2006).
It is defined as culmination of a creative process of interpretation of building traditions, skills and
experience, which is strongly influenced by factors such as environmental conditions, material resources, social
structures, belief systems, behavioural patterns, social and cultural practices, and economic conditions of the area.

Vernacular architecture are a dynamic and creative process through which people, as active
agents, interpret past knowledge and experience to face the challenge and demands of the present.
Vernacular architecture comprises the dwellings ad al other buildings of the people. Related to
their environmental contexts and available resources they are customarily owner or community built using
traditional technologies. All form of vernacular architecture are built to meet specific needs,
accommodating the values, economies and the ways of life of the cultures that produce them. (OLIVER,97)

VERNACULAR DEFINITION : VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

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UNDERSTANDING THE VERNACULAR

Architecture which has been built by the owners and occupiers or by the community itself based on local
wisdom and traditional knowledge of generations, using locally available building materials. It is inexpensive and
is designed in response to the climate and socio-cultural communities it house. It includes dwellings, public spaces
and settlements as a whole. Includes structures made by empirical builders without the intervention of professional
architects and without the use of industrial components. (Rudoskfy, 1987)

VERNACULAR DEFINITION : VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

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ARCHITECTURE WITHOUT ARCHITECTS : ELEMENTAL VERNACULAR : NON-PEDIGREED ARCHITECTURE
One may refer it with the generic terms of anonymous, spontaneous, indigenous, non-formal, non classified, rude etc.
but the unclaimed and distorted by shortage of documents, visual and otherwise architectural designs that BERNARD
Rudofsky highlighted offer the possibility of buildings and more broadly designs , that existed without given
provenance and without identity.

Architecture that can exist without

traditional authorship, designs that
does not require human interventions,
moulded by the primeval forces of
creation and occasionally polished by
climatic conditions by means by
winds and water into elegant
structures, which do not satisfy any
type of classification from
architecture itself but allows for it to
stand outside of human existence.

VERNACULAR Definition : NON:PEDIGREED ARHITECTURE/ARCHITECTURE WITHOUT ARCHITECTS

ARCHITECTURE Presented by : Ar. Kanika Verma
UNDERSTANDING THE INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE

Indigenous Architecture refers to the study and practice of architecture of, for and by Indigenous or native people.
It is said to be practised in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Arctic area and many other countries
where Indigenous people have a built tradition or aspire translate or to have their cultures translated in the built
environment. This sometimes has been extended to include landscape architecture and other designs for the built
environment.

VERNACULAR DEFINITION : INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE

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UNDERSTANDING THE TRADITION
Tradition may be defined as a process of interpretation, adaptation, and negotiation with the given conditions, and
is transmitted over generations to meet the needs and challenge of time (Vellinga2006).
For example, traditional Indian houses did not ensuite bathrooms tell 50 years ago. The change and adaptations in
the lifestyle of the people have now ensured that bathrooms are integral to the design of every house.

INDIGENOUS: VERNACULAR: TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE

The Indigenous architecture is the architecture of a spontaneous and specific environmental and climatic
condition
Vernacular architecture is a style of architecture that emulates the traditional architecture
Traditional architecture is pre modern and generally devoid of authors but related to the material culture of the
building, an architecture based on materials and forms selected from experience and built from manual processes
without industrial components

The term traditional could be extended to academic and historical buildings, which
have a specific link to the territory, but could be a pedigree architecture. But indigenous
related to architecture is a synonymous of vernacular.

VERNACULAR Relation Between : INDIGENOUS: VERNACULAR: TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE

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TYPES OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

KACHCHA
A Kachcha is a building made of natural materials such as mud, grass, bamboo, thatch or sticks and is therefore a
short lived structure. Since it is not made for endurance it requires constant maintenance and replacement.

PUKKA
A Pukka is a structure made of materials resistant to wear, such as forms of stone, or bricks, clay tiles, metals or
other durable materials, sometimes using mortar to bind, that does not need t be constantly maintained or
replaced. However, such structures are expensive to construct as the materials are costly and more labor is
required. A pukka may be elaborately decorated in contrast to a kuchcha.

SEMI-PUKKA
A combination of the kachcha and pukka style, has evolved as villagers have acquired the resources to add
elements constructed of the durable materials characteristics of a pukka. Architecture as always evolves as the
needs and resources of people change.

VERNACULAR Categories / Types of Vernacular Architecture : KUCHCHA, PUKKA, SEMI-PUKKA

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FACTORS INFLUENCING VERNCULAR ARCHITECTURE
• Climate
• Topography
• Materials & Resources
• Construction & Techniques
Central zone of IRAN, Air vents
• Culture employed & Curved roofs, approach in
traditional convective cooing system
• Users & Lifestyle HILL ARCHITECTURE, Roof Structure respecting the
hill slopes creating way for winds to pass and
maintains harmony with nature.

COASTAL ARCHITECTURE, made up by

local woods available around with
construction methods to support structures
on water without disturbing the flow.

VERNACULAR FACTORS Influencing Vernacular Architecture

ARCHITECTURE Presented by : Ar. Kanika Verma
SENSE OF PLACE : IDENTITY OF PLACE : VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

Place is a where dimension formed by people’s relationship with physical settings, individual and group activities,
and meanings. ‘Place Attachment’, ‘Place Identity’ and ‘Sense of Place’ are some concepts that could describe the
quality of people’s relationships with a place. Sense of Place usually is defined as an overarching impression
encompassing the general ways in which people feel about places, senses it, and assign concepts and values to it.
The creation or preservation of Sense of place is important in maintaining the quality of the environment as well as
the integrity of human life within it.

Primitive architecture provided a platform to discuss, architecture – which evolved from the collective idea of a
community living and expressing their beliefs and customs, thus forming a beautiful bond of understanding space
through the context of time and materiality. While most of the architecture in the rural areas is primitive and
addresses the basic fundamentals of context, climate and community participation, but Modern architecture has
fractured this very thought and mechanized spaces. Architecture in today's cities, is merely construction and display
of technology and human politics to address economic and social growth without any understanding of the
“collective”.

VERNACULAR RELEVANCE OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE Presented by : Ar. Kanika Verma
SYMBOLISM & MEANING : VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE
Architecture is an embellishment of the needs and desires of people manifested through the response of its designer
to a set of spatial criteria in order to decipher their values and culture with its systems. Moreover, it remains more
than a social art and responds sympathetically to the societal structures; a form of non-verbal communication which
symbolically evokes meaningfulness in its users. Though the role of symbols in every culture; both civilized and
pragmatic, has been established through different meanings and the relevance of signs and symbols in architectural
communication even in non-traditional societies; both textual as well as cosmological.
• Cosmo- Symbolism as manifested in religions
• Symbolism for Spatial Communication : Social Organisation
•Gender Symbolism
•Symbolism for colours
•Symbolism representing adapting trends

Society requires that architecture not only communicate the aspirations of its institutions but also fulfil their
practical needs. Differences in expression, apart from differences in planning, distinguish the forms of
architectural types ,the kinds of use , and the traditions and customs of users . When architectural forms
become the vehicles of content—in plan, elevation, and decoration—they are symbolic.

VERNACULAR RELEVANCE OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE Presented by : Ar. Kanika Verma
SYMBOLSISM & MEANING : VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

VERNACULAR RELEVANCE OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

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CIMATE RESPONSIVENESS: VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE
The climate is one of the geographical constraints with more influence on buildings, at several levels. Vernacular
architectural is a good example on the diversity of strategies to overcome climatic constraints, as synthesised. To suit
climatic conditions, vernacular architecture developed specific mitigation/adaptation strategies serving local
requirements, creating architectural form and building configuration vary from region to region. Geographical
factors like topography, climate, soil, water and vegetation determine the availability of local material, orientation
of buildings, and other aspects and sometimes design determinants for the development of settlements.
A typical house of an Indian Traditional town was timber framed with brick infill and lime stucco
on both sides, Densely packed with a central courtyard along a narrow street, projected a narrow frontage to
the street. Often the street façade and the courtyards were richly decorated with intricate wooden carvings,
reducing soar gain and providing options for thermal comfort.

Convection Principle, Hot air rises from the courtyard and

Scarcity of water developed a new typology of architecture such coo air entering from shaded streets, works effectively for
as baoli and step wells Hot and arid region of Rajasthan and Gujarat

VERNACULAR RELEVANCE OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE Presented by : Ar. Kanika Verma