Vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture (also folk architecture) is building done outside any academic tradition, and without the involvement of professional designers and architects. Vernacular architecture is not a particular architectural movement or style. Rather, it is a broad category, encompassing a wide range and variety of building types; with differing methods of construction from around the world, including historical and extant, classical and modern examples. In 1995, Amos Rapoport estimated that vernacular architecture constitutes 95% of the world's built environment, as measured against the small percentage of new buildings every year designed by architects and built by engineers. Vernacular architecture directly influences traditional architecture, a professional and academic practice deliberately and explicitly referencing and continuing local historical traditions and vernacular. Vernacular architecture usually serves immediate, local needs, is constrained by the materials available in its particular region, and reflects local traditions and cultural practices. The study of vernacular architecture does not examine formally schooled architects, but instead the design skills and traditions of local builders, who were rarely given any attribution for their work. More recently, vernacular architecture has been examined by designers and the building industry in an effort to be more energy conscious with contemporary design and construction—part of a broader interest in sustainable design. As of 1986, even among scholars publishing in the field, the exact boundaries of "vernacular" have not been clear. This issue of definition, apparently so simple, has proven to be one of the most serious problems for advocates of vernacular architecture and landscapes research. A straightforward, convincing, authoritative definition has not yet been offered. Vernacular architecture is a phenomenon that many understand intuitively but that few are able to define. The literature on the subject is thus filled with what might be called non-definitions. Vernacular architecture is non-high style building, it is those structures not...