Natural Materials in Contemporary Low-Tech Architecture

Abstract

Contemporary tendencies of sustainable and energy-efficient architecture imply an urgent reconsideration of society’s relationship to nature. Nowadays, building technology demands a responsible approach to construction that involves fostering of low-tech architecture, as an alternative to high-tech architecture. Those are current challenges that architects and the building technology face to improve the application of natural materials in architecture. The necessity for advancement and contemporary usage of building materials as wood, stone, soil, straw, natural insulation materials have also resulted in the increasingly present low-tech architecture. This research aims to delineate through several contemporary case studies how serious global problems related to the energy and environmental crisis are increasingly reflected in the intention towards the use of natural materials in the architectural design. These contemporary designs implement innovative solutions of natural materials in the case of building envelopes, construction details or structural elements. The comparative analytical method involves a critical reflection on the integration of natural materials between traditional vernacular application and its contemporary innovative solutions. These contemporary precedents represent diverse design approaches that reinforce the importance of environmental and ecologically responsible design. Current problems related to the energy and environmental crisis highly influence the underlying design concepts and final building design. The contemporary usage of natural materials as a building resource indicates the evolving advancement and re-evaluation of an ecologically responsible architecture. Whereas the contemporary ways of integrating natural materials carry universal values which originate from the principles of vernacular architecture.