Vernacular Dwellings Research Articles

Vernacular Caramel´s Adobe Masonry Dwellings – Material Characterization

ABSTRACT In Pinhal Novo, Palmela, and neighboring municipalities, southern Lisbon region, there are a great number of small adobe masonry dwellings, made in the first half of the twentieth century. The vernacular dwellings were constructed by families that came from the north/center region of Portugal to work at the local manors and were called Caramel´s. Adobe samples from three of these dwellings were collected in Pinhal Novo and Moita, and tested for particle size distribution, X-ray diffraction, color, bulk density, ultrasonic pulse velocity, thermal conductivity, dry abrasion, flexural and compressive strength, capillary absorption and drying. It was possible to conclude that the adobe was not chemically stabilized and had no vegetable fibers. Average values for the adobe properties were defined and results were analyzed, revealing comparable to unstabilised adobe and even to lime stabilized adobe from other regions. The data on Caramel´s adobe can support the design of interventions to preserve at least some of these Caramel´s vernacular dwellings.

Environmental Sustainability in the Conservation of Vernacular Architecture. The Case of Rural and Urban Traditional Settlements in Cyprus

ABSTRACT Vernacular dwellings, throughout the years, have been continually reused, adapted to the local conditions and survived as cultural testimonies providing a direct link with the past. The satisfaction of human needs with simple means, the use of traditional local materials and available resources, as well as the incorporation of environmental design principles, give them a sustainable identity. With a view to enrich the methodological approaches in the conservation of vernacular dwellings with aspects of sustainability, the present study considers the vernacular architecture of Cyprus, as an appropriate case study. The research findings presented herein derive from two extended multidisciplinary research programmes. The qualitative and quantitative investigation carried out has revealed that, although vernacular dwellings incorporate many sustainable design principles, there is often a need to be further enhanced to meet the contemporary sustainability requirements and construction standards. Even though the enhancement of the sustainable character of vernacular dwellings is not incompatible with the preservation of their authentic character, there is some conflict of interest in terms of the different priorities set during these processes. Thus, a balance between the energy and environmental retrofitting and the preservation of the tangible and intangible values of vernacular dwellings must be achieved.

World Heritage, vernacular dwellings and digitalisation: The case of the Fortified Churches in Transylvania, Romania

World Heritage, vernacular dwellings and digitalisation: The case of the Fortified Churches in Transylvania, Romania

Region Adaptability of XiGuan Grand House and Its Value to Ecological Architecture Design

In the late Qing Dynasty, XiGuan Grand House appeared as the large vernacular dwellings architecture. The so – called region adaptability is formed for the local vernacular dwellings architectures need to adapt to the changes of the local nature, society and humanism and continue the evolving way of Original Ecological architecture. This paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, the evolving process about XiGuan Grand House is analyzed; the second part discusses the relationship between the region adaptability and the architectural evolution; the last part studies the region adaptability of XiGuan Grand House to obtain its value to Ecological Architecture Design.

Sustainable Approaches of the Newars in Vernacular Housing and Settlement Planning in the Historic Core of Kathmandu

Vernacular settlements provide us an opportunity to learn how sustainable building was inherently practiced in various regions of the world. This paper looks at how rituals that are a part of the Indra Jatra, a community festival, reinforces the ideals of sustainable spatial planning in the vernacular settlements of the Newars who are the indigenous community belonging to the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The settlement-pattern and vernacular dwellings are appraised, and the current scenario is analyzed so as to derive how the ritual spaces get activated during the festival ( that have been spatially planned) and whether they guide decision-making and policy planning. This is essential to determine whether these spaces face any urban pressures and to further investigate how they can be mitigated.

Passive cooling techniques

Passive cooling techniques

Learning from Tradition: Vernacular Built Heritage of Madeira (Portugal), a Sustainable Proposal

The archipelago of Madeira (Portugal), of volcanic origin and situated in the intraplate region of the African plate, was formed during the Miocene and seats in a full oceanic domain. Since the settlement of the island (15th century), several destructive landslides have happened. In the Island of Madeira, housing is an important expression of the action of man over nature, thus creating a harmonious landscape between the built and its surroundings. In response to the accentuated Topography, terraced platforms appeared to soften this inclination. Vernacular building traditions are repeatedly cited in the academic literature as exemplary models of environmental practice. Therefore, research that addresses the vernacular traditions of the Island of Madeira may emphasize its potential for continuity and viability for maintenance and rehabilitation. Sustainability is indissolubly linked to vernacular architecture and the lessons learned from this architecture of the past can teach us which knowledge to apply in the future. The demand for sustainable buildings with minimal environmental impact is increasing, thus leading the construction industry to adopt new technologies for building design. Achieved for generations, this architecture shows us the art of a population in the construction. The rural housing of Madeira revealed itself as a wise design, where the masters of the craft created a perfect communion between the space, utility, comfort and the volumetric balance, thus creating a new artificial element that connects perfectly with the natural space. Passive strategies have been used around the world for centuries. In the last decades, inhabitants became dependent on mechanical systems with rising economic and environmental impacts. Learning from the past to understand how houses evolved to respond to the surrounding environment is important. The analysis of the local vernacular dwellings will provide insight into well-adapted popular solutions to deal with the local climatic conditions in order to promote responsive passive building technologies and a sustainable proposal is also presented.

Experimental Shear Behaviour of Rammed Earth Strengthened with a TRM-Based Compatible Technique

Earthen constructions are spread worldwide, not only as architectural heritage but also as new buildings, in which a total of around one fourth of the global population is estimated to live in. Among the different raw earth techniques, rammed earth was widely used to build vernacular dwellings in different regions. Despite the raising awareness for the high seismic hazard, recognized seismic vulnerability and high seismic exposure associated with earthen structures, the reduction of their seismic risk has been a topic insufficiently addressed. In general, the seismic vulnerability of rammed earth structures is due to poor connections between structural elements (walls and floors), high self-weight and low strength of the material. Hence, a TRM-based strengthening technique is proposed to improve their seismic capacity. To estimate the enhancement of the in-plane performance achieved with the TRM, an experimental program was conducted. Rammed earth wallets were tested under diagonal compression considering their unstrengthened and strengthened condition. The TRM strengthening was performed by embedding a glass fibre mesh (GRE) or a nylon mesh (NRE) in a compatible earth-based mortar. In general, the proposed TRM-based strengthening seems to improve the shear behaviour of rammed earth by enhancing the shear strength and promoting stress distribution after cracking, while no significant influence on the shear modulus of rammed earth seems to occur.

Mineralogical and microstructural characterisation of rammed earth and earthen mortars from 12th century Paderne Castle

Abstract In many countries, earth was a very common construction material until the middle of the 20th century, being rammed earth one of the most widespread construction techniques. Nowadays, there are still a large number of constructions with this traditional technique, from vernacular dwellings to monuments. Therefore, rammed earth constructions integrate cultural, historical, technical and architectonic recognised value and the constant neglect of this type of constructions, without maintenance and conservations measures over time, or with inadequate interventions, presents a worrying reality. This paper aims to contribute towards increasing the knowledge on materials from 12th century Paderne castle, located in Algarve, south of Portugal. Data from interventions performed on the castle in the 20th and 21st centuries were gathered. Samples from the rammed earth castle tower and walls and mortar from a more recent chapel were collect during the 21st century interventions and characterised, mainly by microstructural and mineralogical techniques. Most of them present calcareous and siliceous aggregates in their composition, except for samples collected from the wall where no siliceous aggregates were detected. Rammed earth samples present a brownish colour being the binder a mixture of clayey earth and lime, and the coarse aggregate mostly limestone. Iron oxide/hydroxide and clay minerals, very common in earth composites, are detected and a lime + clay binder/aggregate ratio of 1:1.5 in volume is the most frequently found. The large amount of calcite in all rammed earth samples is an indication of the use of carbonate gravel mixed with a high content of air lime. The presence of white nodules in the earthen matrix induces that the lime was probably applied as quick lime and, afterwards, hydrated by mixing with the moistened earth. The lime was used as a stabiliser (technique called “military” rammed earth) to promote a hardening process by carbonation and increase durability to weathering. Therefore, characterisation results obtained in this study allow to draw conclusions about the materials and construction techniques used in the past, in order to support future compatible, effective and reversible interventions in this and in similar historic military rammed earth constructions.

Research on the architectural decoration of traditional Chinese vernacular dwellings

ABSTRACTThe Yangtze River and the Yellow River are located in the south and north of China respectively. They are considered the two sources of Chinese civilization. For thousands of years, the cultures of the two river basins have merged, thus forming the five thousand years of Chinese civilization. Despite this long integration, the two cultures have maintained their distinct personality. Vernacular dwellings are no exception. This paper researches the architectural decoration of traditional vernacular dwellings in these two basins. After field investigations, a total of 308 examples of traditional vernacular dwellings have been selected from the two regions. 186 examples are located in the Yangtze River basin and 122 examples in the Yellow River basin. The architectural decoration of these traditional vernacular dwellings is examined from the aspects of brick carvings, wood carvings, stone carvings, oil paintings and colour paintings. The focus of this study is the identification of decorative variances in the architectural decoration of these traditional vernacular dwellings due to regional influences. Attempts were made to ascertain the reasons for these differences, in terms of geography, climate, politics, technology and folk customs.

Effects of Changes in Traditional Agroecosystems on Vernacular Dwellings: the Occupants’ Perspective

Dwellings have an important role in human adaptation to their environment; it is therefore crucial to understand how people deal with variations in building materials. We studied the impact of transforming traditional agroecosystems on the perishable materials used to build vernacular dwellings in a Maya community in central Yucatan, Mexico. Occupants and builders identified traditional agroecosystems as the main source of traditional materials. Our informants cited fragmentation of landholdings and land use intensification of traditional agroecosystems as the main reasons for the decreasing availability of traditional materials, which, together with their perishable nature have led to their replacement by industrially produced materials, predominantly by households with limited involvement in agricultural activities.

An investigation on the climate-responsive design strategies of vernacular dwellings in Khams

Successful building design balances ambitious environmental requirements and residential comfort by considering the regional culture, economic level, natural environment, indoor thermal comfort and energy consumption. Taking dwellings as a case study, this paper examines the potential of improving indoor thermal comfort through field investigations of indoor environments in the Tibetan area. Settlement location and layout designs, combined with the natural environment, religious culture, synchronous optimization of structural seismic performance and enclosed structure, and a semi-open space setting making full use of passive solar energy technology, is a major strategy for climate-responsive design in Khams that also meets local economic levels and modern living needs. The results show that this strategy can achieve 5 h with air temperatures over 16.4 °C (from 12:30–17:30) in a comfortable thermal environment without the consumption of fossil energy, while in the evening, the thermal environment indicators in the major living space remain stable with low heat loss, indicating that an appropriate heat source from local bioenergy can achieve indoor thermal comfort. Overall, the dwellings in Khams with abundant solar energy and a lack of fossil energy are very well adapted to local climate conditions.

Environmental sustainability of the retrofitting of a vernacular dwelling in the Liguria seaside

In the Genova hinterland, a traditional rural dwelling has been completely restored with the addition of new buildings respecting the landscape and the relationship with the existing vernacular construction. The project, in compliance with all the bio-architecture criteria of intervention associates traditional natural materials such as stone and lime with cutting-edge materials and techniques such as raw earth and hempcrete.Both the recovery and the new buildings have been the subject of meticulous bio-design in terms of material choices and diversification of construction techniques according to the area of intervention and of the local material culture. The original stone walls have been preserved and consolidated with fibre-reinforced lime mortar applied directly on the stone wall after removing the old mortar. Timber beams and wooden floors have been almost completely renovated, but preserving and consolidating wherever possible the original structures. External walls have been re-plastered with thermo-plaster based on lime and diatomite. On the interior, a hemp lime mortar has been used.Environmental sustainability of the whole retrofitting has been assessed by using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in compliance with the international ISO standards 14040 and 14044. The scenario is from cradle to construction, i.e. A1-A5 in terms of European directive EN 15804. The study is fully compliant with this directive in terms of impact indicators and additional benefits.

Shape grammar, culture, and generation of vernacular houses (a practice on the villages adjacent to rice fields of Mazandaran, in the north of Iran)

This article is about an investigation exploring the vernacular environment of the villages adjacent to the rice fields of Mazandaran in order to identify the configuration and characteristic of its vernacular dwellings, and applied grammatical rules. In this regard, based on case study research, 4 villages and 44 houses within them have been investigated employing different methods including measurement, mapping, visual recording, one on one, and focus group interviews. Houses have been analysed based on the framework that shape grammars provided towards identification of compositional rules. Criteria and influential factors for creation of rules have been achieved through cultural and climatic studies that justify their appropriateness. This process has been successfully examined through plan creation of four different types of vernacular houses. The result shows that the set of rules contributed by this research can be efficient for generation of vernacular houses within the region of this study.

Javanese vernacular architecture and environmental synchronization based on the regional diversity of Joglo and Limasan

Joglo and Limasan are traditional Javanese architecture structures and the most preferred vernacular dwellings in Java. These houses spread to other areas through Central Java and the Yogyakarta Province of Indonesia. Given the local characteristics, the architecture of these structures is not merely identical in some aspects but is also based on the people and the natural environment. This study examines how environmental synchronization related to vernacular sustainability can be achieved based on the regional diversity between Joglo and Limasan in Central Java for contemporary custom. The architectural features of form, size, orientation, materials, and openings from samples of 10 areas in rural Central Java are compared to discover their distinctive sustainability methods. This study aims to prove the capability of the Javanese to synchronize their house in various ways. The reasons behind such synchronization are explored from both natural and social aspects to gain an enhanced understanding of the disparity in vernacular architecture in relation with the environment. Results indicate that within the same category, houses in each area show their indigenous architecture as result of synchronization with the local nature and the social circumstances of the people.

Le Corbusier: del refugio primitivo a Le Cabanon

La búsqueda que hace Le Corbusier de los orígenes en las viviendas vernáculas que observaba, bosquejaba y habitaba no ha recibido la debida atención. En forma paralela al desarrollo de la arquitectura de la era de la máquina, dominada por la geometría y la razón, exploró la satisfacción que sienten campesinos y pescadores en el marco de una vida simple desarrollada en viviendas rudimentarias construidas con sus propias manos. Los diez años durante los cuales pasó sus vacaciones en Le Petit Piquey -una pequeña población sobre la Bahía de Arcachon- fueron esenciales en la motivación de una revolución de su pintura, y finalmente, de su arquitectura. Este artículo analiza las diversas ramificaciones de la búsqueda, que hace Le Corbusier, en torno a un vínculo más estrecho con la naturaleza y con una existencia más primitiva que se protege de la civilización. Su libro La Ville Radieuse da testimonio no solamente de esta búsqueda paciente sino también de viviendas tales como Le Sextant en Mathes y petite maison de weekend en La Celle Saint Cloud.

La arquitectura del silencio: lo vernáculo en las viviendas del Valle del Chota(1960-1990)

El objetivo principal de esta investigación radica en establecer las principales características de la vivienda vernácula en el Valle del Chota. Este estudio se ha desarrollado con una visión holística desde la perspectiva de la metodología cualitativa y del paradigma hermenéutico. Se trata de un estudio de caso, por lo que los métodos capitales fueron la observación científica documental y el trabajo de campo. La principal interrogante que rigió el estudio fue: ¿cuáles son los valores patrimoniales de la vivienda vernácula en el Valle del Chota a partir del influjo cultural afrodescendiente, y cómo éstos se relacionan con la vida cotidiana y la cultura material y espiritual de la región dentro de las aspiraciones actuales del Sumak Kawsay o Buen vivir? Se trata de una arquitectura que dialoga con el entorno y mantiene ese originario principio de intercambio entre hombre y medio ambiente, a través de la vivienda.

Space and Culture: Isomerism in Vernacular Dwellings in Meizhou, Guangdong Province, China

Taking Hakka vernacular dwellings as an example, this paper discusses the relationship between culture and architectural form. Using survey data from 2,189 traditional villages in the Meizhou region, the authors identify seven types of dwelling and their spatial distributions. Four housing types (Hengtang, Lung Wai, Bar and Pillow) have a high spatial overlap. Architectural morphology, with respect to symmetry, unit design and prototypes is then discussed. The four major dwelling types share the same cultural essence despite having different physical forms. This confirms the phenomenon of isomerism in architectural morphology. The authors hold that the homogenesis of vernacular dwellings, or the ″spatial prototype″ as a symbol and carrier of culture, strongly controls the consistency of architectural design. Meanwhile, heterogeneity reflects specific strategies of housing construction. It gives residential spaces adaptability to specific sociocultural and natural environments. Meanwhile, it exhibits itself indirectly in the form of diversity. Isomerism offers an appropriate mechanism through which vernacular dwellings can balance the needs of the top-down national system, bottom-up family needs, and the natural environment. This brings a new perspective that increases our understanding of vernacular dwellings.

The Effects of Greek Society and Culture on Ayvalık Architecture: Architectural Typology and Vernacular Settlement

Abstract Ayvalık town is a traditional and urban formation that is of the outcome of centuries of optimization of material use, construction techniques and climate considerations, that the traces of the Greek architecture is seen. In this study, traditional building designs having various typology is evaluated. It is concerned with the layout of the buildings (orientation, climate, aspect ratio). This study is concerned with the layout of the buildings, such as building orientation, climate, aspect ratio, the proximity of houses (site planning), the air movement, the size-position of building openings, and the building facade (walls, construction materials, thickness, roof construction detailing). This paper evaluates specific vernacular dwelling types and their response to climate, based on passive design principles that could be adapted to current architectural practice in the area, in order to optimize the relationship between site, building and climate, in Ayvalık.

A Review on Traditional Architecture Houses in Buddhist Culture

The vernacular architecture of a country reflects its culture, religion and identity. Researchers found that countries with similar culture and religion share few similar architectural characteristics. The most similar characteristic is the choice of building material used, where locally available materials such as earth, wood and bamboo are found to be used extensively. This paper explores the traditional architecture houses of few Asian countries with Buddhist culture viz. Bhutan, China, Japan, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam; mainly focusing on its vernacular dwellings. The architectural features, organization of spaces and building materials of vernacular dwellings of these countries are also exploited.