“Is Vernacular Architecture obsolete?”
Traditional Kampung houses
Vernacular architecture is an architectural style based on local needs, living environment, availability of building materials and local traditions. This style remains significant within the 21st century as many of the architectural concepts care still applicable to modern design techniques. The traditional Kampung houses of the Southeast Asian region is a primary example of this, developing its own distinctive approach to accomodate the tropical environment of which aspects regarding thermal control, construction and community can still be learnt from today.
Kampung villages are found in nations in the humid tropics which are generally characterised as monsoonal and have an average temperature of 27 degrees(c) year round. Because of this, architecture within this region has to be strategically designed to handle such environmental pressures with adequate ventilation, thermal comfort and climate defence capacities.
Kampung houses are built with many windows and doors and very few interior walls to let in natural light and allow for maximum air flow through the building to channel out hot air. The houses sit on raised stilts, this helps capture winds of a higher velocity and in turn provides cross ventilation which is important to passive design. It also allows the structures to avoid potential flooding during the wet season and provides residents an aspect of defence from dangerous wildlife.
Roofs of
C. W. Dickey is one of the most important figures in Hawaiian architecture. His material grandfather, William P Alexander, was a missionary to Hawaii. This contributed to Dickey’s interest in Hawaiian architecture. He believes that with such unique weather condition and geographic location, Hawaiian architecture ought to have a distinctive style in order to cope with the weather. In 1926, Dickey declared that “Hawaiian architecture is a type distinctive to itself and Mediterranean style must be adapted to fit local conditions before they are at all suite to the islands” (“Famous Hawaii Architects”). In fact, the over-hanging roof with projecting eaves (the hut-like roof) became such a Dickey trademark that it is now referred as the ‘Dickey Roof’.
2Viking houses were made of any local materials like timber or wood, stones and blocks of dirt and grass they were usually a rectangular shape.
Australia is one of the continents over the world. The vast, varied land and the culture in this abundant place has a deep and lasting impact to the architectural design traditions—Tectonic. Tectonic can be regarded as one distinctive characteristic which is relating to building or architectural construction. It also gives ability for people to read a structure, or see how a structure was put together. Among those architects who had used this tradition in their designs, Donovan Hill and Glenn Murcutt, as Australian architectures, have their own style relates to tectonic. For example, Donovan Hill composes different materials and layered against with one another in D House, while Murcutt establishes a harmonious connection to the surrounding landscape and local climate with Magney House.
Another significant step towards a new era for Hawaiian architecture was Mr Isaac Davies’ house. The interior of the house was similar to aboriginal Hawaiian house clusters; however, the exterior also began to change, a step that King Kamehameha was not willing to take. Different form King Kamehameha’s house was that there
Along with the times, the use of Asta Kosala Kosali as the cornerstone philosophy of building a shelter and sanctuary are becoming obsolete. It is caused by various factors, such as technological, cultural shift, and the development of science knowledge. According to Mr Garim, one community leader of the village of Ubud, states that currently the local community considers the building as it was already "obsolete". Society as if competing to make the building home as comfortable as possible without regard to the basics of layout, system wake, and spatial planning in making a home or building. Community creatively create interesting buildings such as the villa building that regardless of Asta Kosala
Prehistoric humans quickly learned to build shelters that would protect them from rain, snow and other elements of nature. Early roof designs were simple and were often little more than branches placed atop a frame; such shelters were intended for temporary use, so not a lot of effort went into the construction. However, as humans began to embrace permanent agricultural settlements, they began to develop architectural styles that were typically dependent on the local climate and available materials. Many of the roofing materials and styles in use today can be traced back over the centuries.
Vernacular building is a typology which results from a direct response to regional context (Murphy 2011). While contemporary Australian architecture
This essay focuses on the development of hybrid colonial architecture in early 20th century in Southeast Asia. The essay investigates the different styles of buildings in different locations and explains how these types of architecture combined both European and local origins. It explains the Dutch style in Indonesia and the British style in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia while giving an example building to these styles.
A non- arbitrary architecture is an architecture incorporate nature and culture to define the life of a human being. Karsten Harries mention that the needs of human comfort in a building does not meet the tenants comfort since they are illogically made instead of emphasising the design to standout to meet the requirements of people, places and landscape in a real world. The implantation of building design by Frank Lloyd Wright's and Aalto's Villa Mairea has shown the world that design is not only to enhance but compliment God's creation. Frank Lloyd and Aalto's Villa design manifest mainly on the non-arbitrary of architecture, emphasising qualities of direction, of weight, of materiality, of light and so forth. Thus, understanding non-arbitrary architecture, design will be seen in different perspective as the two architecture, Frank Lloyd and Aalto's Villa
The history of Architecture started long time ago. The nomadic were groups of people whom move from one place to another in order find shelter and food to survive. As they progress, their techniques to survive evolve. The need for a permanent shelter became vital for a better stability of the group. This is the time when the first structures that provided protection appeared. Post and lintel were the first forms of Architecture, that satisficed the basic needs. Architecture evolved to be more sophisticated and fulfill the people’s needs. Consequently, Architecture evolved throughout different periods such as: Ancient architecture, Romanesque, The medieval, Renaissance, Early modern, and the industrial age, Modernism and Contemporary
Whether it is the location or the choice of construction materials, the Korowai takes advantages of the forest diversity to live their live. The Korowai usually build their treehouse eight to twelve meters above ground level, but in some upstream areas, houses can be as high as 45 meters above ground. 4 The strategic position of the tree houses protects families against mosquitoes, attack from the animals, evil spirits, and flood. The tree house is built with a sturdy tree trunk as the central pole, with four to ten smaller poles around it to support the floor frame. The roof is made of Sago Palm leaves and wood, and the frame of the house is made of branches tightened with bindings.5 They use dry tree trunk with notches as ladder to get up to the house, and due to their small body frame, they can swiftly climb up and down. The house has the capacity for 20 to
It is all known that architectural culture play an important role in any nation culture and history. It reveals the achievements of the nation in various aspects such as artistic realizations, the development level of the nation and at the same time the civilization degree of the nation.This paper will discuss and compare the different culture between Chinese traditional architecture and Western architecture.
The Traditional Chinese houses have many differences in comparison with the North American houses. The building materials used in construction is the most distinct difference from North American’s. A typical Chinese farmhouse is built of sun-dried bricks or pounded earth, because wood is too expensive and scarce to use. On the other hand, many typical Northern American houses are built of wood. In addition to the variations of building materials used in constriction, the architectural planning of a traditional Chinese houses is also unique. A traditional Chinese house is built according to the “Court-yard System'; where by houses are built around a courtyard which is invisible to the outside. Windows are covered by a thin oiled paper which is also invisible in order to protect robbery and keep privacy. Nowadays, the traditional housing system seldom appears in Hong Kong because it is too expensive and may cost millions of dollars. Moreover, the housing in Hong Kong is usually apartments and skyscrapers which is different from the ancient China.
When thinking about modern architecture, the simplified appearance is the first impression to me, which is a significant difference from the designs before. And then the intentionally showed texture on the exterior walls of these houses would always draw my attention. The arrangement of space in modern houses experienced a significant change as well, the free floor plan, considered as one of the key points of new architecture, which is supported by the improvement in strength of materials is also worth to be analysed. Moving indoors, the use of materials in interior decorations aimed to show the texture and natural feeling of materials as well. Furthermore, designs are nothing without light, the interaction of materials with lighting is the highlight of indoor designs. When placed in pleasing surroundings, outdoor elements are sometimes directly use as another material in decorating the spaces, so that owners could
The ‘Community Architecture’ is kind of architectural practice between architects and users. Also, it can be described as architect follow the wish of users or community to design the building fit the requirement by using local materials and helps the residents to build the structure. Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) described ‘Community Architecture’ should follow the idea about "The aim of community architecture is to improve the quality of the environment by involving people in the design and management of the buildings and spaces they inhabit." () In general, architect call ‘Conventional Architecture’ product, nevertheless ‘Community Architecture’ represents the process rather than the product and most proponents claim that the built product of ‘Community Architecture’ is often better than the product of conventional architecture. “Community architecture means that the personal who inhabit it are involved in and may even be instigators of, its creation and its management as well. The inhabitants are the clients; and the architect works for, or at least with them--in contrast to the typical situation where architects and user never meet.” () The ‘ community architecture’ was the newly invented notion that user participation in the environment is more important than any of another architectural concept, especially in contrast to ‘conventional architecture’. The reasons of that could be limited resources, materials and