Vernacular Techniques Research Articles

Translating the Five Senses in Alfredian Prose

This paper tackles the question of whether an Old English noun exists to express the concept of the five physical senses. After elucidating the debate around potential linguistic gaps in Old English and the modern interpretations of the methods employed by ninth-century Anglo-Saxon scholars to carry out their translations from Latin, I will identify specific vernacular techniques applied whenever the Latin noun sensus was encountered in the sources. Through a comparative analysis of the Latin texts translated as part of the Alfredian cultural programme, and their Old English versions, this paper will firstly assess whether a linguistic gap exists; and secondly, explore possible reasons behind the different translating approaches employed to render the concept of the five bodily senses.

Render-induced cracking of earth masonry

The increasing awareness of the environmental impacts of construction materials has resulted in an increasing interest in earth masonry in the UK in recent years. The use of traditional vernacular techniques has raised the profile of earthen architecture but wider impact is likely to come from commercially produced, thin-walled, earth masonry as a replacement for blockwork, brickwork or timber-framed non-structural internal walls. Earth masonry is susceptible to changes in moisture, and this paper investigates the potential for early-age cracking from changes in moisture content during the most critical period for these materials, namely during construction. It is shown that internal stresses generated by moisture-driven expansion after rendering may exceed masonry flexural (flexure-induced tensile) capacity leading to premature wall failure. This failure mechanism was observed in a test panel and has potential to occur in real walls. Recommendations on how to minimise the risk of early-age cracking are presented.

Lodge Ani Nii Shobo: Pucallpa, Perú

Using vernacular techniques, this work could be linked to the School of Valparaiso travesia works. Raised in a distant spot in the Amazon rainforest, they ar...

An Overview of Some Vernacular Techniques in Iranian Sustainable Architecture in Reference to Cisterns and Ice Houses

The great Iranian tradition is as yet little known in the West and there is much to be learnt both from it and the building techniques which are integral with it. Meanwhile, Not only is the Iranian vernacular building tradition itself still alive, but there is much to be gained from the knowledge of a highly developed technology which makes such ingenious use of natural resources without the consumption of additional power. This article is a study of the craftsmanship involved in the construction of the mud brick vernacular architecture of Iran, and the cultural aspects of a traditional architecture which incorporates an understanding of buildings which dates back centuries. Expanding the existing knowledge of these earthen heritage properties, examining their behaviour in the local climate and explaining their current condition in order to express the need for the preservation of traditional craftsmanship as part of a sustainable conservation future are the other prominent concerns of this work. Among different Iranian Vernacular constructions, Ice-houses and cisterns are the subject of the main body of this article.

Structural Restoration of Historical Constructions Built with Gypsum Pillars and Floors for New Standards of Living

: Tía Cayetana’s inn is an old road motel erected at the end of the 19th Century at Torrebaja (Spain). This inn was built using local vernacular construction techniques, i.e., with a structure made of gypsum pillars, and floors built with beams and gypsum vaulting. The facades and interior walls were built in a combination of stone masonry for the basement and either rammed earth walls or thin stone slabs wall for the upper parts. The local city hall bought the building and entrusted the rehabilitation of the building to the authors of this paper for its future use as a four-star hotel, i.e., the same use for the building more than one hundred years after its original completion. The authors of this paper made an exhaustive study of the fabrics of this building, its construction, material pathologies… and, taking into account these data, elaborated the restoration project for the building that previewed the use of the same original structure made of gypsum to be reinforced with compatible techniques. This article introduces the analysis of the local constructive technique based on the general use of gypsum for the vertical and horizontal structure, the bonding of fabrics and the external and internal coatings, and their structural performance. It also describes the reasoning that took the authors to respect the existing structure in its original condition and the reinforcements made mainly at the foundations and at the floors to assume the new weight of a four-star hotel.

Survey of the Historic Core of Saffa Village

The historic core of Saffa Village covers an area of about 22.5 acres, and is still in use for residential, commercial, and administrative purposes and is a space for public activities. It is estimated that at the end of the Ottoman period, about one quarter of this historic core was a built-up area, devoted to roads and pathways, and served as public space, while the remainder constituted gardens and cultivated lands. A large number of archaeological and historic features were documented within the area under discussion, which includes subterranean dwelling units, caves, cisterns, winepresses, oil presses, dozens of cup-marks and small basins, rock-cut tombs and graves, modern cemeteries, threshing floors, dozens of sections of ancient walls and agricultural terraces, traditional buildings (mostly from the late Ottoman period), and several modern constructions. This ethno-archaeological study reveals the long history of settlement in Saffa Village, presenting a high-resolution picture of land use patterns and other site formation processes; social, ethnic, political, and agricultural dynamics; vernacular architecture and building techniques; and the interventions (positive as well as negative) of the local residents in their environmental context over time.

Compressive strength of extruded unfired clay masonry units

Interest in traditional unfired clay building materials has grown in the UK in recent years. Although the use of traditional vernacular techniques, such as cob, adobe and rammed earth, have raised the profile of earthen architecture, wider impact on modern construction is likely to come from modern innovations such as extruded unfired masonry units. A large driver behind the move to unfired clay masonry is the significant reduction in embodied energy when compared with fired bricks and concrete blockwork, and the passive environmental control provided by clay. This paper summarises the results of extensive testing on commercial mass-produced extruded unfired clay bricks. The focus of this study was to investigate the properties affecting the compressive strength of these building products. Both theoretical models and test results demonstrate that the clay content plays a large role in defining the compressive strength of these materials. The reduction in strength with increases in moisture content are similar for different material sources and these strength reductions are unlikely to cause problems under normal operating conditions, even at relative humidity levels up to 95%.

François Cointereaux’s École d’ Architecture Rurale (1790-91) and its Influence in Europe and the Colonies

This article continues from our previous article on François Cointereaux, published in this journal last year. The aim of this second article is to cast light on the dissemination of the technique of pisé, as perfected by this French agriculturalist and architect, in Europe and its colonies. Although Cointereaux is considered today a minor eighteenth-century architect, the fascicles (cahiers) of his École d’Architecture Rurale were translated shortly after their publication in Paris in 1790–91 into six languages (German, Russian, Danish, English, Finnish, and Italian); these in turn attracted the interest of major architects such as Henry Holland (1745-1806) in England, David Gilly (1748-1808) in Germany, and Nicolai L’vov (1751-1803) in Russia, who founded a school of earth construction in Tiukhili near Moscow based on those of Cointereaux in Paris. Through his publications, Cointereaux generated, at the end of the eighteenth century, an almost universal interest in this vernacular material that was both cheap and abundant. His influence outside France was indeed significant, especially in Europe, where many leading architects used pisé for rural and residential buildings. The sudden interest in this vernacular technique, coinciding with the neo-classical age in revolutionary France and in Europe, might seem surprising. Doubtless this success can largely be explained by a desire to revive rural architecture, as well as by the cheap price of the material and its incombustibility. Although we have no means of assessing the number of pupils who attended Cointereaux’s schools, we do know that there were many visitors, notably foreign ones. In the period 1790–95, they were attracted by the novelty of the material and by his demonstrations of its application; this facilitated the wider dissemination of pisé architecture in Europe, North America and Australasia in 1795–1840.

Traditional roof coverings in the North York Moors National Park

PurposeThe paper seeks to deal with vernacular roofing practices within the North York Moors National Park.Design/methodology/approachInitially the paper carries out a literature review of the geography and geology of the area and identifies what makes it physically unique. The paper then examines the development of various roofing materials, including thatch, stone slates and pantiles with case studies of old practice and modern methods from around the Park.FindingsRoofing styles are simplistic and have steered away from the intricate in favour of the indigenous or readily available. The paper demonstrates the much‐regionalised nature of the roofing materials and recognises this as one of the special cultural features worthy of conservation.Research limitations/implicationsThe results are limited to the North York Moors National Park but the approach taken could be extended to other conservation areas.Practical implicationsThe results of the research will benefit those involved in the conservation of vernacular buildings in the North York Moors National Park.Originality/valueThe paper calls for additional guidance for roofers and specifiers on traditional vernacular techniques and for existing funding under the Environmental Stewardship Scheme to be extended to include rural communities in National Parks.

Risk assessment of residential buildings for an eruption of Furnas Volcano, São Miguel, the Azores

This paper presents the results of a study of the risks to human settlements of a future eruption of the Furnas Volcano in the Azores. It makes use of previous geological studies to estimate the likely impact of the volcanic hazards on the surrounding settlements, given an eruption comparable with the last major eruption in the island in 1630; it presents the results of a comprehensive building-by-building survey of the settlements at risk to determine the exposure of the residential building stock to these hazards; and it uses data from recent experience of volcanic eruptions elsewhere to estimate the vulnerability of the buildings to each hazard and the likely scale of human casualties and building damage. The paper concludes with some recommendations for preparedness and protective measures which could be taken before an eruption to reduce the risk of human casualties from roof and building collapses. Principal among these are recommendations for strengthening the lateral load resistance of buildings built with the traditional vernacular techniques to better resist groundshaking during eruptions and earthquakes; upgrading local building code requirements with view to increasing the live load resistance of roofs, to levels similar to those applied in areas of heavy snowfalls, to prevent roof collapse from tephra loading. Other preparedness measures are also discussed with respect to volcanic earthquakes, volcanic bomb impact, pyroclastic flows and tephra falls. Many aspects of this paper are relevant to other volcanic areas around the world.

Self-help Housing in the Weimar Republic: The Work of Ernst May

This paper examines the work of the architect Ernst May with regard to self-build housing initiatives during the Weimar Republic (1918-33).Among the many attempts to assuage the housing shortage in early 20th-century Germany, self-build housing initiatives were the last resort, emerging only in times of dire economic crisis. During the hyper-inflation years from 1919 through to 1924 and then with the onset of the world depression in 1930, the state encouraged housing authorities to develop self-build strategies, along with experimentsin 'recovered' vernacular building materials and techniques. This paper examines the work of the architect Ernst May with regard to these initiatives. May's career is unique in its productivity,in the inventiveness of his strategies and the relentlessness with which he pursued economising measures. At the same time, it is typical in the types of self-build experiments he developed to deal with the crisis. Further, the paper traces through May's career the formative impact of the political and social context that shaped and delimited the building programme, its meaning and ultimate utility to society self-build programmes in the Weimar years.

The Cobb at Lyme Regis, Dorset.<BR> A Sideways Look at Vernacular Materials and Techniques

The Cobb at Lyme Regis, Dorset.<BR> A Sideways Look at Vernacular Materials and Techniques

The Cobb at Lyme Regis, Dorset. A Sideways Look at Vernacular Materials and Techniques

AbstractAnyone researching the history of traditional building materials and techniques is bound to arrive, sooner or later, at the question of when (if ever) they cease to be vernacular and, following on from this, a return to the knotty problem of what defines 'vernacular'. Thatching, for example, is claimed in some quarters to be the last living vernacular building trade, although the water reed used for thatch today may be imported from China, the craftsman schooled through a national training scheme and the transaction with the client may involve selling insurance as well as re-roofing. Traditional Devon mud construction can be found in the unvernacular context of 1790s symmetrical sash-windowed houses designed to attract very polite company to the south coast resort of Exmouth and pairs of Victorian villas on the outskirts of Exeter. It would not be difficult to argue that the inter-war self-built plotlands developments, using corrugated iron or old railway carriages, produced perfectly vernacular b...

Oxspring Lodge: reconstructing a Yorkshire hunting lodge

A mid sixteenth-century hunting lodge of the Bosville family, which survived intact until the late nineteenth century, is now reduced to its footings. Using an unpublished description and photographs taken early this century, the lodge can be reconstructed on paper, showing it to have been of unusual hybrid construction using stone external walls along with an internal timber frame; some similar sixteenth-century structures survive in the area. The building also demonstrates a fusion of ‘Highland’ and ‘Lowland’ traditions in carpentry, and in addition provides an interesting example of what are usually thought of as vernacular building techniques in a high-status structure.