Traditional Architectural Practice Research Articles

Accompanying popular organizations through grassroots planning in Argentina: A conversation with El Taller Libre de Proyecto Social (TLPS)

In this conversation, Beatriz Pedro, a professor of El Taller Libre de Proyecto Social (TLPS) shares her insights on grassroots planning accompanying popular organizations in Argentina. Beginning with Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis, Pedro describes how university students and professors mobilized to collaborate with popular organizations to address inadequate housing and urban abandonment. This collaboration evolved into a social approach to designing habitat, integrating various disciplines and respecting community proposals. Beatriz highlights the transformation from traditional architectural practices to a more collaborative, community-focused approach. This shift, which she terms a ‘meeting of knowledges,’ led to the establishment of a Catedra Libre at the University of Buenos Aires, formalizing their grassroots methodology. This conversation addresses the importance of university autonomy, the impact of fluctuating government support, and the role of international networks in sharing knowledge and strategies.

Exploring user-led spatial practice and user design tools in urban low and middle-income residences: a study based in Kitulwatte, Colombo

In many developing Asian countries, informal user-led architectural production is prevalent, with dwellings designed and built largely without professional input. Unlike traditional architectural practices, where design, construction, and inhabitation are distinct phases, users perceive these aspects as interconnected, influencing each other continuously and simultaneously, resulting in unexpected and rich spatial experiences. This study focuses on informal user-led architectural production in Sri Lanka, examining the design methods users employ through Jonathan Hill’s framework of user creativity types. By analysing the architectural features of user-designed homes, identifying manifestations of user creativity, and assessing the influence of user-led production on urban adaptability and vibrancy, this research aims to underscore the creative and significant architectural contributions of users. Through an analysis of four residences in Kitulwatte, Colombo, the research reveals the conscious and subconscious processes inherent in user-led design, highlighting their substantial contribution to the urban fabric. This holistic approach transforms architecture from a static product into a dynamic process that continually evolves to meet individual needs. By elucidating the unique design tools and approaches employed by users, this paper enriches the discourse on architectural agency and challenges conventional notions of authorship, showcasing the profound impact of user influence on shaping the built environment.

What does the common look like?

Urban commoning projects, seen as part of those practices referred to as ‘spatial agency’, deal with the production of space focusing on the construction of relations and processes rather than on the production of objects, buildings, or images. The refusal of architectural formalism is seen as a way to bypass commercialism and the superficiality of traditional architectural practices. However, architect-led urban commoning activities still cannot avoid the production of very recognisable images, reinforcing a more or less involuntary aesthetics of the commons. This article posits that the production of images is too important to be left to commercial architectural practice, and that it should be considered as an integral part of spatial agency. Rather than privileging a return to a depoliticised and formalist architectural practice, this article argues that commoning practices, if seen from the point of view of the theory of the common in the singular, have an intrinsic capacity to produce a new political and aesthetic strategy. Some projects from DOGMA and Aristide Antonas are presented as practices that take the production of the common as a theme while at the same time problematising the role of image- and form-making, providing new formulations of the role of the project of architecture in contemporary production.

24 Galleries, a museum: The Survey as a Design Tool

Abstract In the mid-1970s in Madrid, it’s possible to identify a series of experiences that went beyond traditional architectural practice, the established domains of academia and the usual dynamics of editorial and institutional activities. The art galleries, with their publications, curators, collectors, critics and visitors, proved to be a prolific setting for an informal network of agents and institutions that, through programming events of various formats, instituted an active mediation in the critical formation of the citizenry. The seminar “Nuevos Comportamientos Artísticos” (“New Artistic Behaviors”), held at the Madrid’s German Institute in 1974, was one of these events. Its gallery proved to be a pioneer in the exhibition of practices linked to art and design, which openly promoted their expansion into other fields of knowledge based on a local interpretation of what was noticed in Spain as “conceptual art”. The action “Survey of 24 art galleries in Madrid,” was the contribution to the seminar of the multidisciplinary collective Grup de Treball (GdT), and serves here to illustrate the activation of this network of galleries as a ‘counter-project’. An act of design, based on Peter Eisenman’s definition of ‘Conceptual Architecture’, that transcends art and controversies to offer an alternative. The exhibition of the survey’s answers accumulated the values of language, interface, platform and medium necessary to redefine the framework of relations between its participants. Whose association gathered a community with the capacity to be a Museum: a dematerialized, fragmented and heterogeneous institution that challenged conventional relationship between art, citizenry and the market.

Aspects of proportions in Indian traditional domestic architecture

ABSTRACT Indian traditional architectural practice ‘Vastusastra’ (Vāstuśāstra) recommends some particular ratios as auspicious for the proportioning of domestic buildings. Similar ratios are found in some ancient buildings belonging to the classical ages in other parts of the world. Recent studies conducted by Dhileep, Kottuppillil, and Kurian [2019. “Orientation and Proportion in Indian Traditional Domestic Architecture.” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 44 (1): 97–109], show that the square and the rectangle formed by the basic auspicious ratio (breadth:length) are geometrically related to a circle with a diameter equal to the length of the rectangle. The mathematical aspects behind these geometrical relationships and other ratio groups given in ‘Vastusastra’ (Vāstuśāstra) are investigated in this paper. The study reveals that the auspicious ratios help to convert the area of a circle to a rectangle and vice versa, without any loss in accuracy, while using the methods of their age. The traditional social practices are incorporated into these ratios and are modified adequately to fit into the traditional engineering practice.

Transformative or Tokenistic?

Transformative or Tokenistic?

Modern Mosque Architecture in Relation to Conservative Attitude’s Aesthetic Problematic

Bu makalede dini yaşamın merkezinde yer alan, ritüellerin gerçekleştirildiği ve güçlü bir temsile sahip cami mimarisinde yakın dönemde ortaya çıkan gelişmeler ve bunları etkileyen faktörler, incelenen yapılar üzerinden irdelenmiştir. Yapılara etki eden faktörler Modernizm, Eklektizm ve Mimesis’tir. Bu üç etkenden sonra yapıların gerçekleştirilmesi sürecine ve mimari gelişimine etki eden sosyo-siyasal, ekonomik ve psikolojik unsurlar birlikte irdelenmiştir. Bu çalışmada ele alınan yapılar belirli bir perspektifle gruplandırılmış, yapıların birbiri ile kesişen ve ayrışan özellikleri ele alınmıştır. Yapıların gerçekleştirilmesi sürecinde hemen hepsinin ortak bir düşünce zemininden etkilendiği anlaşılmaktadır. Bu, dini ritüellerin gerçekleştirilmesi için gerekli zemini yaratmayı amaçlayan düşüncedir. Ancak bu dönemde gerçekleştirilen yapılar işlevselliğinin ötesinde düşünsel olarak belirli bir amaca yönelen, böylece belirli bir perspektifte ele alınan simgeler olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Modern mimarinin baz alındığı yapılarda sanatçı mimar kimliğin öne çıktığı, modern ve klasik mimarinin birlikte baz alındığı (eklektik) yapılarda çağdaş muhafazakâr bunalım olarak tabir ettiğimiz sorunsalların öne çıktığı, klasik mimarinin baz alındığı yapılarda ise siyasal tarihimizin belirli bir dönemine ait (1700-2000) siyasal ve mimari dönüşümlerin adeta görmezden gelinmesinin belirleyici olduğu geleneksel mimari uygulamaların öne çıktığı görülmektedir.

Sustainable Concepts of Traditional Sanskrit Theatre:the Harippad Subrahmanya Swami Temple, Alleppy.

Traditionally built structures have withstood the onslaught of time and weather conditions for thousands of years due to their dexterity in construction and design. Their unique structures and designs have opened up a new genre of architectural discipline. Over the years, globalization and man’s quest for innovative designs and materials have revolutionized the conceptual and architectural practices, which have resulted in the gradual degradation and destruction. The paradigm shift has resulted in losing not only the traditional architectural heritage but also the sustainable practices associated with it. Therefore, it is time we developed new approaches with regard to the design and construction of Koothambalams. Such a step will indeed open up new grounds for technical innovations and critical appraisal of traditional practices and designs. There is a lot more technical knowhow involved in these structures than meets the eye. The paper is an attempt to explore the traditional architectural practices and sustainable concepts of the Koothambalam of Sree Subramanya temple theatre, Harippad, Alleppy. The Koothambalam not only depicts the tangible realization of age old architectural secrets, but also serves as a meeting place for the community to socialize and experience ancient performing artforms. Within the premise of the temple, there are numerous ancient structures of which Koothambalam is meant for performing cultural and traditional artforms. The proposed research involves an appraisal and listing of the best architectural practices used in the construction of the Koothambalam. Special attention is also given to verify the energy efficient parameters and their contributions to sustainability as laid down by GRIHA. The study will be instrumental in formulating new concepts for sustainable conservation and green concepts for reviving and maintain traditional construction methods which could eventually give rise to new cultural studio space for the contemporary society

Linkage Between Traditional Architectural Elements Representing Regionalism and Achieving Salutogenesis

Cultural inferences are lost in the context of city, which can be reestablished with conscious design decisions by the architect and conscious house dwellers. Delving into those regionally established architectural elements found in Bangladesh or in the South East Asian climate, connections are found which are crucial to achieve the modern green building. Traditional architecture addresses sustainability. Salutogenesis is an approach coined by Aaron Antonovsky focusing on factors that support human health and well-being. This study draws the linkages between traditional architectural practices and achieving salutogenesis.

Orientation and proportion in Indian traditional domestic architecture

ABSTRACTFrom ancient times, the traditional architectural practice ‘Vastusastra’ is rigidly followed and practised in many parts of the Indian sub-continent and has a unique position in Indian architecture. In Indian traditional domestic architecture, a hand calculator table and an index number system are used for finding the proportion and orientation of the building. The mathematical and logical background of this traditional practice, which is not known at present, is investigated in this paper. The study reveals that there is a strong and complex mathematical background behind this traditional architectural practice.

Reflection of cultural practices on syntactical values: An introduction to the application of space syntax to vernacular Malay architecture

This study introduces the basic concepts and terminologies regarding space syntax research through a simple spatial configuration. The concepts are elaborated for intricate configurations. This study aims to deepen the understanding of how syntactical analysis can extract social information embedded in traditional architectural practice in the Malay Archipelago. The basic terminologies are outlined, and the sequential procedure for analysis is described along with its interpretation in the context of actual social phenomena. Result shows that the syntactical properties of a particular configuration within a particular region reflect the traditions of the people in that region. This study serves as a basis for the future study of the applications of space syntax to diverse spatial configurations in the Malay Archipelago.

Fachadas media Elementos para un debate crítico

<p>Las fachadas media han irrumpido en la arquitectura contemporánea superponiendo una capa de información bidimensional no necesariamente arquitectónica, y además dinámica. Es una realidad extremadamente compleja de integrar en la práctica arquitectónica tradicional. El artículo analiza el impacto de este nuevo elemento desde tres perspectivas: la lógica arquitectónica, las oportunidades de proyecto que ofrece y los retos o contradicciones que su presencia genera.</p>

Learn from Tradition: Utilizing Traditional Building Materials in the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction

The post-earthquake reconstruction aims to assist the earthquake survivors return to their normal lives physically and mentally. This paper examined three post-disaster reconstruction cases occurred in the west of China and deciphered that facing the short-term and massive projects in the reconstruction process, the decision makers and designers utilized the non-local materials and modern technologies produced plenty of modern structures which were not completely fit the local social and physical environments. After conducting fieldtrips and interviews in these quake-hit areas, this paper suggested the decision makers and designers to learn from the local traditional architectural design and construction methods in order to improve their design to be suitable for the local unique cultural and physical backgrounds. To be continued, this paper proposed some improvements regarding using the modern technologies to strengthen the advantages of traditional building materials and technologies as well as avoid the traditional architectural practices weaknesses.

‘The web is not a tree’: information architecture and the navigational topology of the World Wide Web

The discipline of information architecture, which borrows many of its methods and metaphors from traditional architectural practice, has so far remained largely outside architectural discourse. I examine the profession and practice of web-based ‘information architecture’ through the lens of methods and theories relating to the built environment and conclude that, although the metaphors of architecture used, for example, in the design of graphical user interfaces, have been largely unsuccessful, topological theories of architecture may offer the potential to better understand the deep structure of information as it is navigated using networked structures which are common to web-based technologies.

Unraveling feng-shui

This paper comes in three parts. First, relevant principles of fēng-shuǐ are enunciated and examined. Second, these principles are applied to procedures to compute two parameters of predesign behaviour in Chinese traditional architectural practice: the fortunate orientation for a building site and an auspicious date for the start of its construction. Third, an interactive computer implementation is described that incorporates these procedures.

The impact of CAD on architectural practice challenges, benefits and prospects

Architectural practices will need to adapt to realise the full benefits of CAD. Those benefits are summarised, emphasizing modelling techniques, discipline coordination and library use. The various implications of CAD operation are given and the changes forced onto traditional architectural practice in terms of design team relations, role redefinition and work practices. A scenario of practice in the future is given and the paper concludes by suggesting that the challenges of CAD should be taken up if architectural practice is to remain competitive.