Vernacular: Ingenious, Indigenous

Contextual in material selection and technique, vernacular architecture is a meaningful design approach to the built environment

- Simrata Makkar

Before the Industrial

Revolution, it was the norm for construction techniques to balance climatic needs, despite not having an enunciated focus to a small ecological footprint. That is no longer the case; and leading present-day architects such as Ar. Nguyen Tuan Nghia, NGHIA Architect, believe there is an urgent need to make sustainable practices relevant in the present builder-driven and construction-oriented environment with materials that are practical and contextual.

Historically, the term vernacular architecture has been used interchangeably with ‘architect-less’ architecture, or traditional methods of construction of the built form. It is ‘a built environment that is based upon local needs; defined by the availability of particular materials indigenous to its that region; one that reflects local traditions and cultural practices’* and draws upon the design skills and tradition of usually unknown local builders. More recently, vernacular architecture has been embraced by architects and builders as part of a broader interest in sustainable design.

Though vernacular is traditional in design, it is different from traditional architecture, although they are dependent on each other. Traditional architecture is pre-modern, material-based and experiential architecture assembled with manual processes and without industrial mechanisms. Vernacular imitates and outdoes the traditional form by being environment-responsive in design. Renowned architect, the late Ar. Charles Correa once said, “The old architecture – especially from vernacular – has much to teach us as it always develops a typology of fundamental sense.”

vernacular in the 21st century