From ‘neo-vernacular’ to ‘semi-vernacular’: a case study of vernacular architecture representation and adaptation in rural Chinese village revitalization

ABSTRACT

Vernacular architecture can be regarded as heritage places. Recently, the need to protect vernacular heritage in China has been reflected through government policy changes, for example the ‘beautiful countryside’ program which aims to develop rural villages since 2005. However, a conflict between conserving the tangible fabric and the intangible heritage of the vernacular place can become pronounced, as villagers have desires for a modern lifestyle, and maintaining the physical building fabric. Vernacular villages require sustainable development alongside conservation of both tangible and intangible heritage significance. A key factor in keeping a village alive is continuing its utilization by a local community. This paper introduces the terms ‘neo-vernacular’ (buildings with a vernacular appearance with contemporary methods and materials) and ‘semi-vernacular’ (reusing or renovating vernacular buildings in combination with modern and traditional building techniques) to distinguish two approaches to vernacular villages conservation. We analyse the distinctions between the works of Amateur Architecture Studio (AAS) and Atelier Zhang Lei (AZL) to demonstrate the neo-vernacular and semi-vernacular approaches respectively through photo-comparison diagrams, and reviewing comments from local villagers, architectural students, and scholars. In the discussion, we propose that the semi-vernacular adaptation offers a new approach worth pursuing in China’s rapidly changing rural landscapes.     

Architecture as material culture: Building form and materiality in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Anatolia and Levant

Mudbrick technology and permanent architecture are Neolithic hallmarks but their origins are not well understood. By adopting a symmetrical approach to the examination of building materials, and contextualizing these materials within a cultural knowledge of resources and other concurrent social practices, this paper challenges environmentally determined approaches to explain the adoption of mudbrick technology during the PPNA in Anatolia, Upper Euphrates and the Levant. This research illustrates the weak correlation between architectural form and building material, suggesting that although nature provides resources, it is culture that dictates architectural form and material use. It is argued that the human-constructed environment became normalized throughout the PPNA and the social complexities of village life created a conceptual shift towards an artificial environment, supported by other changes in symbolic behavior. If building materials, such as mudbricks, were considered objects reflexive of human behavior, then we can access the complex and entangled relationship between people and things. Furthermore, the choice of building materials and their use in architecture can be considered codes of social practice and even ideology. As material culture, architecture becomes a metaphor for human engagement and symbolic communication.     

基于康泽恩形态学的传统村落物质形态的生成与演变——以傣族弄么村为例

传统村落物质形态既是空间的产物,也是时间的产物,具有动态的历史延续性.基于康泽恩形态学的方法,本研究从物质形态与非物质形态关联互动的视角出发,分析了傣族传统村落弄么村物质形态的生成逻辑与演变过程.研究发现:①弄么村的物质形态与社会文化形态之间存在复杂的辩证关系.民间非正式组织、基层治理与弄么村的物质形态之间存在着复杂的...     

Adaptation of heritage architecture in Al Asmakh,Doha: insights into an urban environment of the Gulf

SUMMARY: This paper examines the continuing legacy and occupation of Doha’s vernacular architecture of the early oil period, drawing on techniques from architecture, contemporary archaeology and anthropology. Historical and contemporary inhabitation is examined, as well as the experiences of today’s resident migrant communities. The ongoing significance of Al Asmakh’s vernacular architecture within Qatar’s heritage discourse is considered. Particular attention is given to adaptations undertaken by today’s multinational residents, and the role they play as custodians of Qatar’s architectural heritage. This is a companion piece to the study of vernacular architecture by Eddisford and Carter (2017).     

Cultural geography of vernacular architecture in a cross-cultural context: houses of the Dai ethnic minority in South China

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the cultural geography of the vernacular architecture of the Dai ethnic minority in Dehong Prefecture, located on the border between southern China and Myanmar. The objectives of the study include: exploring the characteristics and distributions of built forms, identifying the hybridization of ideal Dai pattern-built forms in Southeast Asia caused by the influence of the Han Chinese, and discussing the continuity and change of vernacular architecture in a cross-cultural context. The field methods include a physical survey of the cultural geography of Dai living as rice farmers in lowland geographies, a detailed investigation of their houses, and in-depth interviews with local informants about the dynamics of changes under socio-political constraints in China. The findings provide insight and knowledge about the cultural geography of architecture in a cross-cultural context.     

Building Power in Rural Hinterlands: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Vernacular Architecture in Tigray,Ethiopia

In Tigray, Ethiopia highland farmers and noblemen used a common vernacular architecture to build places of political authority and power during the last century of Ethiopia's feudal economy. This study contributes to the perspective that domestic houses are active political locales integrated into the larger political landscape. In addition, it is argued that vernacular architectural style generates hierarchical power in part by manipulating building strategies usually attributed to monumental construction. The study concludes that vernacular architecture is actively engaged in rendering a political aesthetic that reproduces state authority in rural hinterlands.     

The Pyrenean Neighbour; or,the Vicinal System in the Western Pyrenees

Excavations have recently produced valuable new evidence for the structural types used in the vernacular architecture of lowland and eastern Britain during the sixth-eighth centuries A.D. The evidence from a number of contemporaneous sites suggests that a highly characteristic building tradition was in widespread use. The identifying features of this building tradition are defined and its affinities discussed.     

Epistemological paradigms in the perception and assessment of vernacular architecture

The current situation of vernacular architecture is a result of the different perspectives of agents who have some sort of direct or indirect relationship with the architecture of the past which has influenced attitudes and ways of thinking, thus guaranteeing its assessment and survival. Therefore, this article reviews recent currents of thought and theories encapsulating the increased value of vernacular architecture. In the eighteenth century, this architecture made the romantic ideals of rural society synonymous with its surroundings, territory and country. In the twentieth century, a select few modernist intellectuals carried out in-depth studies of this architectural type in relation to its formal values. Now, in the twenty-first century, it has become the object of technological and scientific analysis for many experts. The current situation still presents many unresolved problems, which are perhaps the result of little thought having been put into specific aspects of the process of vernacular architecture.     

我国历史文化村镇保护的内容与方法研究

历史化村镇是我国遗产保护体系的重要组成部分,随着第一批中国历史化名镇(村)的命名公布。遗产保护工作又进入了一个崭新阶段。我国历史化村镇保护研究较国外起步较晚,相关研究也欠深入全面。导致在当前城镇化快速发展过程中,一些颇具价值特色的古村镇没有得到很好保护。本首先回顾了国内外历史小城镇、村落保护的演变发展,然后指出历史化村镇保护在价值特性方面,不同于历史化名城;在保护内容方面,要在以往偏重于物质化遗产保护的基础上。进一步加重非物质化遗产的保护;在保护方法方面,要综合运用历史学、地理学、建筑学、社会学、景观生态学等方法,才能达到较好的保护效果。     

传统村落保护度评价体系及其实证研究——以湖南省首批中国传统村落为例

传统村落在全球化、现代化和城镇化进程中面临诸多破坏,因此,传统村落保护研究显得尤为迫切。本文从原真度、活态度、完整度、传承度四个方面,构建了传统村落保护度评价指标体系及其评价函数。在对其保护状态进行阶段划分的基础上,通过湖南省的案例研究发现：①湖南首批中国传统村落保护度整体处于中度保护,且内部差异明显;②四项准则层中原真度和整体度较好,而活态度和传承度较低;③24项指标内部差异较大,建筑风格原真度等两项指标较好,而农业生产活态度等3项指标则较弱;④案例研究验证了构建的评价体系的科学性和评价函数的可行性。     

La concession familiale Bamiléké: un exemple d'architecture endogène au Cameroun

This paper addresses the issue of vernacular or endogenous architecture and design in Cameroonian cities. More precisely, we study the traditional Bamiléké family estate as a specific type of housing and property structure within the community of Pète-Bandjoun. According to our research, these estates usually involve the following spatial units: green spaces, a delineating structure, a courtyard, the family landfill, the magico-religious place, the family cemetery, the dwelling itself, and the dwelling's main functional units (kitchen, toilets, attic, etc.). We suggest the idea that the Bamiléké family estate is in itself an important source of endogenous knowledge related to architecture and planning. Moreover, it is a tangible and intangible cultural heritage which should be preserved in Cameroon despite widespread urbanization.     

空心村村民居住生活空间特征及其优化重构——对河南邓州市8个村庄的调查

在空心村整治过程中,地方政府普遍重视通过土地整理和迁村并点实现用地集约,而忽视对村庄内部村民居住生活空间的优化。本文以邓州市桑庄镇8个村作为调研区域,对当地村民进行问卷调查和深度访谈,归纳出空心村背景下乡村居住生活空间的形态变化和利用模式,分析其反映出的乡村生活中的矛盾与问题,并在此基础上提出对乡村居住生活空间的重构思路,为空心村整治过程中乡村社区的重建与优化提供参考。     

Preserved epiphytes as an archaeological resource in pre-industrial vernacular buildings

The vernacular building tradition is an established source of information about historic woodlands and woodland management in Britain. We build on this resource by recognizing the information content derived from the tree-dwelling epiphyte communities of lichens and mosses, which are preserved on the bark of historic wooden building materials. We report on a first analysis of preserved epiphytes identified from six regions across lowland England. Seventy-eight vernacular buildings were surveyed for the presence of bark and preserved epiphytes. We demonstrate three novel and important findings: the prevalence of bark, substantial preservation of epiphytes, and their application as an archaeological tool for the reconstruction of historic environments. Future analyses will build on epiphyte species composition and abundance data to examine changes in historic environments across lowland England.     

Archaeology,conservation and the late twentieth-century village landscape: With particular reference to Westmorland and North Lancashire in northwest England

Abstract

This paper argues that the present landscape and village is of archaeological significance and is needed both to understand and to preserve a representative sample of the past. It explores the relationship between archaeological data and monument types, and landscape character. Landscape assessment, including attribute analysis, is advocated as an essential archaeological method separate from the process of value judgement and selectivity. It concludes that function and process are as important as period in determining conservation strategies, and the potential role of sustainable development is discussed. The importance of village plan forms, vernacular architecture, field and landholding patterns is stressed, together with the need to recognize the historical importance of industrial villages.     

民俗学艺术论题的转向——从民间艺术到支撑人之“生”的艺术(vernacular艺术)

民俗学研究中关于艺术的讨论通常是在民间艺术或民俗艺术概念之下展开的。然而,这类议论往往深受传统与历史性的束缚,普通人在生活世界里所制作的平凡作品很少有机会能被视作"艺术"。要使这样略失偏颇的论题实现在现代社会中的转向,vernacular艺术这个概念应能发挥效用。它所指的,是并不自许为"艺术家"的普通人受难以抑制的创作冲动所驱使而作成的艺术;是在那原本与正统艺术世界的制度、权力或权威无涉的世界里,自学习得艺术技能与知识的人们苦心巧思而成的艺术。它是呈现在普通人生活现场与路上的艺术,有时亦是支撑人生、充实生活的艺术,是寻回新生、填补生命的艺术。在民俗学中采用vernacular艺术这一视点时,艺术本身并不是真正需要我们考察的对象。我们应当考察的是艺术背后人们千姿百态的生活形象与方式,是他们别具特征的人生观与人性,这些都是极好的研究材料。另外,将"艺术家"的个人史与其生活社会的当代史加以描述,从中亦能生长出研究的良材。     

The Threefold Logic of Papua‐Melanesia: Constitution‐writing in the Margins of the Indonesian Nation‐State

Clashes over the status of West Papua and the political future of the territory proliferated markedly following the end of Indonesia's New Order regime in 1998. Amid a wide variety of demands for justice and independence, and a series of demonstrations, mass gatherings and prayers, only a few Papuans mused on how Papua could become a state and what would constitute its nature as being distinctly Papuan and/or Melanesian. One exception is the work put into the Constitution for West Papua entitled Basic Guidelines, State of West Papua, a document edited by Don A.L. Flassy, a bureaucrat, writer and thinker, with a preface by late Theys H. Eluay, then chairman of the Papuan Council. In this article I analyse this Constitution to show how a combination of Christianity and local customs, and a mimicry of elements of Indonesian nation building and symbols of the Indonesian nation‐state are reshaped to oppose Indonesian nation‐building agendas. The Constitution shows that when Papuans imagine an independent state, forms of vernacular legality play a central role. ‘The state’ has journeyed to Papua and encouraged faith in ‘the law,’ and Basic Guidelines is partly the effect of this growing vernacular legality. My analysis shows that it is essential to see how legal mobilisations and imaginations of the state articulate with other normative systems and practices – in particular Christianity and custom (adat) – and how they mutually allow for and invite strategies.     

焦作出土汉代陶仓楼的艺术特征

焦作出土汉代陶仓楼系目前保存下来较为完整的中国秦汉建筑的实物例证,其种类多,特色鲜明,具有较高的艺术价值和深厚的民族文化内涵。本文根据历年来相关考古报告和研究资料,并在实地考察部分馆藏作品的基础上,逐一对不同形制的陶仓楼进行了考释。     

Coral Roads and their Sorcery: Lost Authority and Spectral Commodification in Buka

Sorcery in Buka, Autonomous Region of Bougainville, is understood as reprehensible in most present contexts, but it is also believed to have once played a constructive role in maintaining social order. This mytheme is important both to the analysis of how traditional systems of sorcery come to be rearticulated in postcolonial contexts, and as a means of understanding how villagers conceptualise social order itself. Here, an analysis of the selective means by which vernacular forms of sorcery are assimilated to the Tok Pisin term poisen is presented together with an examination of the history of institutions of social control in which sorcery is remembered ‐ and forgotten ‐ to have played key roles. In the past, sorcery would have been gavman blong peles, a ‘village government’, a power over and from people, accumulated by the hierarchical integration of lineages within houses known as tsuhana. Sorcery has been privatized and commodified, slipping out of control of traditional authorities, who now pursue a strategy of achieving power over land. Power from people entails, in the Buka context, sorcery or other forms of internalised violence; power over land entails the assertion exclusivist genealogical claims. The pursuit of such claims is mediated by courts, and frequently creates rifts in communities. Sorcery, once freed from its role as government, returns to haunt traditional authorities as the spectre of their former power, and as the spectre of resistance to their current power: to the extent that they emphasize the historical role of poisen, the more they are suspected of it; imagined as the anarchy of jealousies, poisen multiplies in proportion to their success in parlaying forms of traditional authority into economic and political advantage.     

Using finite element methods to analyze ancient architecture: an example from the North American Arctic

Developing theories of vernacular architecture in archaeology has been hindered by the lack of a defined methodology for studying ancient buildings, and the absence of information on the mechanical properties of construction materials uncommon in today's building practices. In this paper we use Finite Element Methods and recent research on the structural properties of whalebone to analyze the architecture of Thule semi-subterranean houses. These unique dwellings were constructed and used by the ancestors of Inuit/Eskimo peoples in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. Little is known about how they were designed and constructed because few have ever been discovered intact. The substantial weight of whalebone roof frames suggests that some designs would have performed better than others. Poorly planned houses, or the use of whalebone in a symbolic rather than strictly utilitarian capacity, may have resulted in higher maintenance costs, thereby shortening their anticipated use life. In extreme cases, errors in design, or the failure of materials may have caused dwellings to collapse, resulting in injuries or possibly even death. We demonstrate through this case study that Finite Element Methods constitutes an effective methodology for studying ancient buildings, with the proviso that more research is needed on the mechanical properties of building materials used in the past.     

Warwickshire Timber-Framed Houses: a Draft and a Contract

Abstract

Two 17th- to 18th-century documents are described, one a detailed contract and the other a plan and elevation drawing. They throw light on traditions of timber-framed building and in particular on the process of development and innovation in vernacular architecture.