Mankind has always struggled to seek shelter and was extremely resourceful in providing it. Vernacular architecture is the main result of this most basic human necessity. Vernacular buildings were designed in accordance with certain fundamental principles which included comfort, durability, functionality, aesthetic beauty and affordability. The sustainability in such buildings lies in the fact that they are built to adapt to the regional inhabitants and their needs, and regional conditions, including availability of local materials and building techniques, the climatic conditions and the socio-cultural factors. To ensure the practicality of these structures, builders use knowledge that is based on experience, tested by trial and error and most of the time is passed on from generation to generation.
The builders are limited on resources and have to make use of indigenous materials that can be obtained from the surrounding environment. The interdependent relationship between the materials and the community led the craftsman to know what the capabilities and limitations of the materials are. The way these materials are utilised enables the structure to be ideally suited for the local climate and the community’s religious views and other beliefs. Some architectural structures may offer a challenge to comparative studies since they are practical in several different environments. Activities within the space of the house, such as cooking and heating are also essential for good energy performance. The local resources, besides having a practical purpose in defining space and poviding comfort, are also used for vernacular features, which ascribe the community to the given environment and thus fulfilling a great humanistic need. All of ...
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.... The extensive roof of the main part, covered in palm leaf thatch or clay tiles to provide good insulation against the sun’s radiation due to their low thermal capacity, is relatively steep to cast off rainwater and most importantly to increase stack ventilation. As air gets warmer, it expands and rises inside the high ceiling. There it flows out of the house through the ventilation roof joints or the hooded rising gable vents. On the other hand, the attached roofs covering the secondary spaces are low-pitched and less suitable for precipitation. But they are intended to cast water away from the walls in order for windows to remain open and let air flow through the building without having water infiltrating it. These roofs also contribute to natural convection by means of the stack effect, since the steeply-pitched roof space draws the air from their lower space.
Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is full of plateaus and canyons. Though the area may appear unsuitable for habitation, the Anasazi were able to adapt to this environment by building homes using materials found in abundance around the Chaco Canyon region. (Fig. 1) The apartment style of building of great houses, “multistoried communal strongholds”1 , began to appear during the late ninth century, dying down into the twelfth century A.D.2 While wood usually had to be imported from a distance, sandstone was readily available and used primarily in this geometric style of architecture. Although no one knows the exact reasons why, the Anasazi moved to create these large complexes now known as great houses, breaking away from previously more traditional pithouse communities. Perhaps it was safer to commune as a large group, protecting themselves from enemies. Another possibility can be seen through examination of the heating and cooling benefits of the Chaco Canyon great house style of architecture.
It is also the result of the belief of the architect that the building should not oppose the environment. By constructing the same material in a more environmentally efficient way, the building is light in appearance but it doesn’t in functionality. The titles of some books on this architect who lead a new Australian domus in the form of a long and narrow, light-weight, roof work, comparable in its sheltering function to the bower of a tree or, in more morphological terms, to the turned up collar of an overcoat that shelters from the wind while subtly opening its front towards the sun , reveal the stubbornly prudent aesthetics of lightness: Leaves of Iron , Touch this Earth Lightly , Feathers of Metal
Materiality is a critical feature in all of his projects, and in this case, the architect did not only blend the building with the landscape, by sinking it carefully into the slope, but he also uses genuine local materials to give the space atmospheric ideals. Always working towards a consistent visual appearance, Zumthor uses this quality factor in the interior building method. Using a system of specifically, almost scientifically, arrangem...
Retrospection into to past, the indigenous culture and tradition of the people, their life style and its effects on built environment has led to an intriguing thoughts of the inlaid principles of sustainability that was predefined ages ago. Their cultural values and traditional approaches towards built form and structure not only retain the regional identity but also provide authentic solutions to the design problems faced on a regular basis.Vernacualar architecture is but a representation of man, his ideals, and his beliefs on a built scale. This research attempts to understand the definition of sustainability through simple and effective methods used in the bygone days.
What makes modern architecture? Before answering this, one would need to understand what the term “modern” exactly describes. In architecture, modernism is the movement or transition from one period to another, and it is caused by cultural, territorial, and technological changes happening in the world. In Kenneth Frampton’s Modern Architecture: A Critical History, he details these three major societal changes that impact and create modern architecture.
This is the distinction four tectonic elements from vernacular architecture: earthworth (site analysis and settlement), hearth (home), roof and framework (the structure in which the home is based) and enclosing membrane (the envelope closing). First you must dial, shape and prepare the soil. The foundation of a home is inseparable from this first step of placing the first stone and put aposentar and what will be your home. Through the site, the environment becomes the essence of architectural production. Before creating a home (hearth, tied to the altar, spiritual nexus of architectural form I -derived from Latin, it means building or making a home-) man had to lay the first stone settle. There are two main attitudes to the context: first, mimesis or imitation of the organic and complex arrangement; the second, the settlement of physical relationships, formal definition and internalization of
Homes are normally based on a solitary level with an edge rooftop. Houses in the more swarmed urban communities frequently have two or more stories and mirror an European impact. A great many people lived in single-family homes until the relocation to urban focuses in the late 1940’s and mid 1950’s. The requirement for satisfactory lodging induced the legislature to put resources into high-masses of open lodging activities amid the mid 1950’s. In the poorer territories, huge families live in little houses developed from ash squares and secured with an adobe made of mud, bovine compost, and
Martin used the physical home remains and images to examine home construction in understanding the social relationships in a community. The changes in construction and craftsmanship signify changes in the culture, and social relationships, and ideology (Martin, 1984). In my research I will use the house and images to discover the changes and investigate why these changes were occurring and what connection these changes had with their social relationships and
As someone with a passion for writing, my final project will be an extended expository essay about the history of homebuilding from ancient to modern times. It will discuss the different types of dwellings throughout recorded human history from the perspective of how art and culture influences building design. This will fulfill my own curiosity to understand the different influences on homebuilding and design over the years and how people have dealt with these changes.
Abstract: Contemporary architects have a wide variety of sources to gain inspiration from, but this has not always been the case. How did modernism effect sources of inspiration? What did post-modernism do to liberate the choice of influences? Now that Contemporary architects have the freedom of choice, how are they using “traditional” styles and materials to inspire them? Even after modernism why are traditional styles still around?
Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are two very prominent names in the field of architecture. Both architects had different ideas concerning the relationship between humans and the environment. Their architectural styles were a reflection of how each could facilitate the person and the physical environment. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, is considered one of the most important buildings in the history of American architecture and Le Corbusier s Villa Savoye helped define the progression that modern architecture was to take in the 20th Century. Both men are very fascinating and have strongly influenced my personal taste for modern architecture. Although Wright and Corbusier each had different views on how to design a house, they also had similar beliefs. This paper is a comparison of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s and Le Corbusier ‘s viewpoints exhibited through their two prominent houses, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.
Hopkins, Graeme and Christine Goodwin. Living Architecture: Green Roofs and Walls. Collingwood, CSIRO Publishing. 2011,Print.
Human beings are susceptible to the force of nature. They had to make shelter for themselves. Material was one of the most basic tools to create shelter. By development of building construction, selection and use of materials also developed. The relationship between the architecture and the materials before invention of modern materials was simple and generally naturally [1]; in the past, architects always use tradition materials according their experimental skills. For choosing structural materials, they had attention to important factors such as availability (local materials) and harmony with climate and culture [2], although this way was forward with feedback. But this relationship was not continuing simply.
In the past, our ancestor uses bush materials and trees to build houses. They weave the walls with bamboos and built their roofs with woven leaves or hay. The shape and size of the house depends on the size of the family. If a family has many children, the house built must be big enough to fit everyone. However, globalization has introduced materials such as roofing irons and processed timbers for walls and floors. These materials attracted the people in my village. Some of the people build their houses with these materials because they want to be seen as the highly ranked person in the village so they will be respected in the community. One of the effects of introduced architectural designs is that people lose interest in the traditional material because it might get damaged by pests, unlike the modern materials, the timbers are made in a way that pest or insects cannot attack and damage them. People nowadays find modern methods of construction for building homes more quickly and
In Laugier’s book, “An Essay on Architecture,” he addresses early architects’ ignorance. Laugier explains how architects did not study nature and the set rules nature has already created for us. In his Essay, he reveals the flaws that many early buildings throughout Europe posses. Some of the more general flaws he exposes are disproportioning in architectural design, unnecessary placement, and ignoring the primitive and original purpose of a building all together. Therefore, Laugier believes appropriate and appealing architecture can only be designed and crafted when the architect behind the building has followed the rules of nature.