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49-474: The location of Haghpat Monastery was chosen so that it overlooks the Debed River in northern Armenia's Lori region . It was built partway up a hillside on a site chosen to afford protection and concealment, but also because of the monks' monastic humility . It is built on a leafy promontory in the middle of a cloudy cirque . The monastery is not isolated and is surrounded by many hamlets. The monastery

98-463: A 1964 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York , designed by architect Bernard Rudofsky , with a subsequent book. Both were called Architecture Without Architects . Featuring dramatic black-and-white photography of vernacular buildings around the world, the exhibition was extremely popular. Rudofsky brought the concept into the eye of the public and of mainstream architecture, and also kept

147-484: A lengthy discussion of the relevant terms, in Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions. Noble concluded that "folk architecture" is built by "persons not professionally trained in building arts." "Vernacular architecture" is "of the common people", but may be built by trained professionals, using local, traditional designs and materials. "Traditional architecture"

196-507: A number of different forms of shelter appropriate to different seasons and geographical locations, including the igloo (for winter) and the tupiq (for summer). The Sami of Northern Europe, who live in climates similar to those experienced by the Inuit, have developed different shelters appropriate to their culture including the lavvu and goahti . The development of different solutions in similar circumstances because of cultural influences

245-610: A proponent of the Gothic Revival movement in England, Scott used the term as a pejorative to refer to the "prevailing architecture" in England of the time, all of it, as opposed to the Gothic he wanted to introduce. In this "vernacular" category Scott included St Paul's Cathedral , Greenwich Hospital, London , and Castle Howard , although admitting their relative nobility. The term was popularized with positive connotations in

294-556: A relatively flimsy, lightweight structure is also less likely to cause serious injury than a heavy structure. Over time, dwellings' architecture may come to reflect a very specific geographical locale. The local environment and the construction materials it can provide, govern many aspects of vernacular architecture. Areas rich in trees will develop a wooden vernacular, while areas without much wood may use mud or stone. In early California redwood water towers supporting redwood tanks and enclosed by redwood siding ( tankhouses ) were part of

343-611: A self-contained wind-powered domestic water system. In the Far East it is common to use bamboo, as it is both plentiful and versatile. Vernacular, almost by definition, is sustainable, and will not exhaust the local resources. If it is not sustainable, it is not suitable for its local context, and cannot be vernacular. Construction elements and materials frequently found in vernacular buildings include: As many jurisdictions introduce tougher building codes and zoning regulations, "folk architects" sometimes find themselves in conflict with

392-528: Is architecture passed down from person to person, generation to generation, particularly orally, but at any level of society, not just by common people. "Primitive architecture" is a term Noble discourages the use of. The term popular architecture is used more in Eastern Europe and is synonymous with folk or vernacular architecture. Architecture designed by professional architects is usually not considered to be vernacular. Indeed, it can be argued that

441-523: Is borrowed from linguistics , where vernacular refers to language use particular to a time, place, or group. The phrase dates to at least 1857, when it was used by Sir George Gilbert Scott , as the focus of the first chapter of his book "Remarks on Secular & Domestic Architecture, Present & Future", and in a paper read to an architectural society in Leicester in October of that year. As

490-479: Is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. It is not a particular architectural movement or style, but rather a broad category, encompassing a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, both historical and extant and classical and modern. Vernacular architecture constitutes 95% of the world's built environment, as estimated in 1995 by Amos Rapoport , as measured against

539-779: Is formed at the confluence of the Dzoraget and Pambak . It ends in Georgia where it discharges from the left into the Khrami , a tributary of the Kura . This article related to a river in Armenia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Georgia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture (also folk architecture )

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588-426: Is informed largely by vernacular architecture. Vernacular architecture is influenced by a great range of different aspects of human behaviour and environment, leading to differing building forms for almost every different context; even neighbouring villages may have subtly different approaches to the construction and use of their dwellings, even if they at first appear the same. Despite these variations, every building

637-450: Is no clearly defined and specialized discipline for the study of dwellings or the larger compass of vernacular architecture. If such a discipline were to emerge it would probably be one that combines some of the elements of both architecture and anthropology with aspects of history and geography. Architects have developed a renewed interest in vernacular architecture as a model for sustainable design. Contemporary complementary architecture

686-584: Is not a stylistic description, much less one specific style, so it cannot be summarized in terms of easy-to-understand patterns, characteristics, materials, or elements. Because of the usage of traditional building methods and local builders, vernacular buildings are considered cultural expressions—aboriginal, indigenous, ancestral, rural, ethnic, or regional—as much as architectural artifacts. The term vernacular means 'domestic, native, indigenous', from verna 'native slave' or 'home-born slave'. The word probably derives from an older Etruscan word. The term

735-634: Is subject to the same laws of physics, and hence will demonstrate significant similarities in structural forms . One of the most significant influences on vernacular architecture is the macro climate of the area in which the building is constructed. Buildings in cold climates invariably have high thermal mass or significant amounts of insulation . They are usually sealed in order to prevent heat loss, and openings such as windows tend to be small or even absent altogether. Buildings in warm climates, by contrast, tend to be constructed of lighter materials and to allow significant cross ventilation through openings in

784-552: Is typical of vernacular architecture. Many nomadic people use materials common in the local environment to construct temporary dwellings, such as the Punan of Sarawak who use palm fronds, or the Ituri Pygmies who use saplings and mongongo leaves to construct domed huts. Other cultures reuse materials, transporting them with them as they move. Examples of this are the tribes of Mongolia, who carry their gers (yurts) with them, or

833-582: The Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World edited in 1997 by Paul Oliver of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development . Oliver argued that vernacular architecture, given the insights it gives into issues of environmental adaptation, will be necessary in the future to "ensure sustainability in both cultural and economic terms beyond the short term." The encyclopedia defined

882-594: The Vastu-Shilpa Foundation in Ahmedabad to research the vernacular architecture of the region; and Sheila Sri Prakash who has used rural Indian architecture as an inspiration for innovations in environmental and socio-economically sustainable design and planning. The Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck was also a proponent of vernacular architecture, as were Samuel Mockbee , Christopher Alexander , and Paolo Soleri . Oliver claims that: As yet there

931-541: The area is an increasingly popular tourist site. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Debed River The Debed ( Armenian : Դեբեդ ) or Debeda ( Georgian : დებედა ) is a river in Armenia and Georgia . It also serves as a natural boundary between Armenia and Georgia at the village Sadakhlo , Georgia. The Debed is 176 km (109 mi) long, and has a 4,080 km (1,580 sq mi) drainage basin . The river originates in Armenia and

980-509: The black desert tents of the Qashgai in Iran . Notable in each case is the significant impact of the availability of materials and the availability of pack animals or other forms of transport on the ultimate form of the shelters. All the shelters are adapted to suit the local climate. The Mongolian gers (yurts), for example, are versatile enough to be cool in hot continental summers and warm in

1029-571: The building into separate rooms. Culture also has a great influence on the appearance of vernacular buildings, as occupants often decorate buildings in accordance with local customs and beliefs. There are many cultures around the world which include some aspect of nomadic life, and they have all developed vernacular solutions for the need for shelter. These all include appropriate responses to climate and customs of their inhabitants, including practicalities of simple construction such as huts , and if necessary, transport such as tents . The Inuit have

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1078-464: The capital and labour required to construct them is a one-time cost. Permanent dwellings often offer a greater degree of protection and shelter from the elements. In some cases, however, where dwellings are subjected to severe weather conditions such as frequent flooding or high winds, buildings may be deliberately "designed" to fail and be replaced, rather than requiring the uneconomical or even impossible structures needed to withstand them. The collapse of

1127-537: The climate it is used in, does not need to provide the same degree of protection from the elements. The type of structure and materials used for a dwelling vary depending on how permanent it is. Frequently moved nomadic structures will be lightweight and simple, more permanent ones will be less so. When people settle somewhere permanently, the architecture of their dwellings will change to reflect that. Materials used will become heavier, more solid and more durable. They may also become more complicated and more expensive, as

1176-566: The definitions loose: he wrote that the exhibition "attempts to break down our narrow concepts of the art of building by introducing the unfamiliar world of nonpedigree architecture. It is so little known that we don't even have a name for it. For want of a generic label we shall call it vernacular, anonymous, spontaneous, indigenous, rural, as the case may be." The book was a reminder of the legitimacy and "hard-won knowledge" inherent in vernacular buildings, from Polish salt-caves to gigantic Syrian water wheels to Moroccan desert fortresses and

1225-404: The east gable . Apart from one or two minor restorations carried out in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the church has retained its original character. There are several other structures at the site as well. There is the small domed Church of Sourb Grigor (St. Gregory) from 1005. Two side chapels were added to the original church; the larger one built in the beginning of the 13th century and

1274-678: The fabric of the building. Buildings for a continental climate must be able to cope with significant variations in temperature and may even be altered by their occupants according to the seasons. In hot arid and semi-arid regions, vernacular structures typically include a number of distinctive elements to provide for ventilation and temperature control. Across the middle east, these elements included such design features as courtyard gardens with water features, screen walls, reflected light, mashrabiya (the distinctive oriel window with timber latticework) and bad girs ( wind-catchers ). Buildings take different forms depending on precipitation levels in

1323-485: The family. In polygamous communities there may be separate dwellings for different wives, and more again for sons who are too old to share space with the women of the family. Social interaction within the family is governed by, and privacy is provided by, the separation between the structures in which family members live. By contrast, in Western Europe, such separation is accomplished inside one dwelling, by dividing

1372-441: The field of vernacular architecture as: comprising the dwellings and all other buildings of the people. Related to their environmental contexts and available resources they are customarily owner- or community-built, utilizing traditional technologies. All forms of vernacular architecture are built to meet specific needs, accommodating the values, economies and ways of life of the cultures that produce them. In 2007 Allen Noble wrote

1421-497: The four imposing pillars of the lateral walls. The outside walls are dotted with triangular recesses . A fresco in the apse depicts Christ Pantocrator . Its donor, the Armenian Prince Khutulukhaga , is depicted in the south transept (a transversal nave intersecting the main nave). The sons of the church's founder, Princes Smbat and Kurike , are shown with Queen Khosravanuysh in a bas-relief on

1470-582: The highly self-conscious academic attempts at the beautiful throughout Europe". Since at least the Arts and Crafts Movement , many modern architects have studied vernacular buildings and claimed to draw inspiration from them, including aspects of the vernacular in their designs. In 1946, the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy was appointed to design the town of New Gourna near Luxor . Having studied traditional Nubian settlements and technologies, he incorporated

1519-405: The individual will have been guided by a series of conventions built up in his locality, paying little attention to what may be fashionable. The function of the building would be the dominant factor, aesthetic considerations, though present to some small degree, being quite minimal. Local materials would be used as a matter of course, other materials being chosen and imported quite exceptionally. In

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1568-544: The landscape to minimise potential storm damage. Climatic influences on vernacular architecture are substantial and can be extremely complex. Mediterranean vernacular, and that of much of the Middle East, often includes a courtyard with a fountain or pond; air cooled by water mist and evaporation is drawn through the building by the natural ventilation set up by the building form. Similarly, Northern African vernacular often has very high thermal mass and small windows to keep

1617-516: The local authorities. A case that made news in Russia was that of an Arkhangelsk entrepreneur Nikolay P. Sutyagin, who built what was reportedly the world's tallest single-family wooden house for himself and his family, only to see it condemned as a fire hazard. The 13-storey, 44 m (144 ft) tall structure, known locally as "Sutyagin's skyscraper" ( Небоскрёб Сутягина ), was found to be in violation of Arkhangelsk building codes, and in 2008

1666-430: The occupants cool, and in many cases also includes chimneys, not for fires but to draw air through the internal spaces. Such specializations are not designed but learned by trial and error over generations of building construction, often existing long before the scientific theories which explain why they work. Vernacular architecture is also used for the purposes of local citizens. The way of life of building occupants, and

1715-409: The people, and by the people, but not for the people." Frank Lloyd Wright described vernacular architecture as "Folk building growing in response to actual needs, fitted into environment by people who knew no better than to fit them with native feeling". suggesting that it is a primitive form of design, lacking intelligent thought, but he also stated that it was "for us better worth study than all

1764-706: The region – leading to dwellings on stilts in many regions with frequent flooding or rainy monsoon seasons. For example, the Queenslander is an elevated weatherboard house with a sloped, tin roof that evolved in the early 19th-century as a solution to the annual flooding caused by monsoonal rain in Australia's northern states. Flat roofs are rare in areas with high levels of precipitation. Similarly, areas with high winds will lead to specialised buildings able to cope with them, and buildings tend to present minimal surface area to prevailing winds and are often situated low on

1813-481: The small percentage of new buildings every year designed by architects and built by engineers. 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 that of the design skills and tradition of local builders, who were rarely given any attribution for

1862-419: The smaller, known as "Hamazasp House", built in 1257. In 1245, a three-story tall free-standing belltower was constructed. Other 13th-century additions include the chapel of Sourb Astvatsatsin, a library and scriptorium (later converted into a storeroom), and a large refectory , which is outside the monastery limits. There are also a number of khachkars (cross-stones) of the 11th-13th centuries standing on

1911-406: The sub-zero temperatures of Mongolian winters and include a close-able ventilation hole at the centre and a chimney for a stove. A ger is typically not often relocated, and is therefore sturdy and secure, including wooden front door and several layers of coverings. A traditional Berber tent, by contrast, might be relocated daily, and is much lighter and quicker to erect and dismantle – and because of

1960-524: The territory of the monastery, the best known among them is the "Amenaprkich" (All-Savior) khachkar which has been standing since 1273. In 1260, Prosh Khaghbakian , with his Armenian Zakarid suzerains Avag and Shahnshah , led a large force of Georgians and Armenians to support a much smaller force of Mongol troops of Hulegu in the Siege of Mayyafariqin , which was defended by its last Ayyubid ruler Al-Kamil Muhammad . The Armenian Prince Sevata of Kachen

2009-644: The traditional mud brick vaults of the Nubian settlements in his designs. The experiment failed, due to a variety of social and economic reasons. Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa is considered the pioneer of regional modernism in South Asia . Along with him, modern proponents of the use of the vernacular in architectural design include Charles Correa , a well known Indian architect; Muzharul Islam and Bashirul Haq , internationally known Bangladeshi architects ; Balkrishna Doshi , another Indian, who established

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2058-401: The very process of consciously designing a building makes it not vernacular. Paul Oliver , in his book Dwellings , states: "it is contended that 'popular architecture' designed by professional architects or commercial builders for popular use, does not come within the compass of the vernacular". Oliver also offers the following simple definition of vernacular architecture: "the architecture of

2107-478: The way they use their shelters, is of great influence on building forms. The size of family units, who shares which spaces, how food is prepared and eaten, how people interact, and many other cultural considerations will affect the layout and size of dwellings. For example, the family units of several East African ethnic communities live in family compounds, surrounded by marked boundaries, in which separate single-roomed dwellings are built to house different members of

2156-445: The 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. Vernacular architecture tends to be overlooked in traditional histories of design. It

2205-535: Was considered iconoclastic at the time. The term "commercial vernacular" was popularized in the late 1960s by the publication of Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown , referring to 20th-century American suburban tract and commercial architecture. Although vernacular architecture might be designed by people who do have some training in design, in 1971 Ronald Brunskill nonetheless defined vernacular architecture as: ...a building designed by an amateur without any training in design;

2254-542: Was founded by Queen Khosrovanuysh, wife of the Bagratid king Ashot III , probably in 976. The nearby monastery at Sanahin was built around the same time. The largest church in the complex, the Cathedral of Surb Nshan, was probably begun in 967-976 by Queen Khosrovanuysh, wife of Ashot III , and completed in 991 by King Smbat . It is a typical example of tenth-century Armenian architecture, its central dome rests on

2303-691: Was killed in the conflict. When the city was captured at last after a siege of two years, the Muslims were massacred, but the Christians were spared. Christian relics were collected and brought back to Armenia, particularly to the Haghpat Monastery, which received the hand of the Apostle St Bartholomew . The monastery has been damaged many times. Sometime around 1130, an earthquake destroyed parts of Haghpat Monastery and it

2352-544: Was not restored until fifty years later. It also suffered numerous attacks by armed forces in the many centuries of its existence and from a major earthquake in 1988. Nevertheless, much of the complex is still intact and stands today without substantial alterations. Described as a "masterpiece of religious architecture and a major center of learning in the Middle Ages", Haghpat Monastery, together with Sanahin Monastery,

2401-476: Was placed on UNESCO 's World Heritage List in 1996. The monasteries at Haghpat and Sanahin were chosen as UNESCO World Heritage Sites because: The two monastic complexes represent the highest flowering of Armenian religious architecture, whose unique style developed from a blending of elements of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture and the traditional vernacular architecture of the Caucasian region. Today

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