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Design and the Vernacular: Reframing vernacular architecture in the face of rapid globalisation
Design and the Vernacular: Interpretations for Contemporary Architectural Practice and Theory is an essential text for anyone interested in vernacular architecture, First Nations architecture, and architecture in Australasia and the Pacific. It is a weighty book with 16 chapters, 32 authors and over 300 pages. In the current age of fast media, this book is the opposite.
Each chapter is thoroughly researched, explaining conceptual frameworks and research methodologies, and providing detailed information and analysis of each topic. The book is rich in detail on history and theory, knowledge systems, daily living practices and the making of architecture. It is a great book to read one chapter at a time, to digest and contemplate what it means to make architecture in Australia and the Pacific and to critically consider how our approaches can be improved.
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Co-editor Professor Paul Memmott has stated that the impetus for Design and the Vernacular was inspired by new contributions from Australia- and Oceania-based scholars to the upcoming second edition of the Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World, due for publication in 2024 (following the original encyclopedia published in 1997 by the late Paul Oliver). As such, Design and the Vernacular builds upon a library of important publications since the 1990s by authors such as Oliver, Memmott, Lindsay Asquith and Marcel Vellinga.
The definition of vernacular architecture is evolving. In the 1980s and ‘90s it was considered to be architecture, built without architects, that generally adhered to age-old building traditions. It was characterised by being hand-built, sustainable, often regional, and made of local materials. Design and the Vernacular contributes to a reframing of what vernacular architecture is and might be, particularly in the face of rapid culture change and globalisation.
It poses, among other questions: how have First Nations and Indigenous building traditions shaped modern practices and architectural identity? What can vernacular architecture contribute to debates about sustainable development? And can vernacular architecture be identified by methodology rather than final product?
The first two chapters of Design and the Vernacular are by Indigenous authors, providing a strong tone and demonstrating how the book prioritises First Nations voices and methodologies. This is one of the characteristics of the book that makes it so valuable to anyone with an interest in First Nations architecture and culture: the reader is immediately immersed in Indigenous knowledge systems and ways of being and doing in relation to the nexus of vernacular and contemporary architecture.
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The opening chapter, for example, “The architectural vernacularisation of Pacific aid practice” by Tongan architect and academic Charmaine ‘Ilaiu Talei provides an insight into working on contemporary, non-residential projects funded by international aid while balancing and adapting vernacular traditions to enable the values and aspirations of Indigenous peoples. She discusses the vernacularisation of procurement processes and how effective cross-cultural communication is as essential in procurement and delivery of projects as in design.
Later, the book approaches Australian conditions. In “Building on Indigenous homelands in Arnhem Land since the 1980s: Harnessing appropriate technologies and partnerships as a new procurement vernacular”, Hannah Robertson shifts the focus of the discourse on vernacular architecture from the product to the process and identifies what she coins “a vernacular architecture practice – a process that has led to a distinct way of building on many homelands in the region.”
The creation of vernacular architecture through maintaining Indigenous knowledge systems and methodologies, often in displaced communities, is a recurring theme in the book. In chapter eight, for example, James Miller writes about climate resilience and culture change where Indigenous knowledge adapts existing vernacular to assist with climate mitigation. Miller recommends “more understanding of Indigenous Design Knowledge in the production of culturally supportive environments throughout periods of intense social change.”
The content of the book is expansive – and impossible to honour properly in a short review – and each chapter carries a wealth of insight. Other chapters that sparked my interest include: an examination of architectural changes across Asia-Pacific from the 1870s, describing the influence of Sumatran and Javanese architecture on colonial establishment houses (including Queenslander houses) by Amanda Achmadi, Karen Burns and Paul Walker; speculative landscape design used to illustrate how climate-displaced Pacific cultures might work in new places with traditional vernaculars by Lizzie Yarina, Penny Allan and Martin Bryant; investigations of Asian and Middle Eastern Australian communities and the creation of commercial vernacular precincts in Victoria and Tasmania by David Beynon and Ian Woodcock; and analysis of the role of vernacular and traditional architecture in contemporary nation-building in the Philippines and New Caledonia by Edson Cabalfin.
As a practising architect and academic with 30 years’ experience working with First Nations peoples and organisations on architectural projects, I found many stories, themes and methods in Design and the Vernacular relevant to design professionals considering how to respect Country through design: the importance of Indigenous knowledge systems and methods in the process of designing and making architecture; the ways vernacular architecture adapts to current and emerging conditions, changing through time; and the role of vernacular architecture in maintaining cultural identity and practice for diasporic communities, separate to place.
Design and the Vernacular is an informative, diverse and essential text for understanding the history and theory and changing concepts of vernacular architecture in Australasia and the Pacific.
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