« Invitation to Vernacular Architecture: A Guide to the Study of Ordinary Buildings and Landscapes is a manual for exploring and interpreting vernacular architecture, the common buildings of particular regions and time periods. Thomas Carter and Elizabeth Collins Cromley provide a comprehensive introduction to the field. » « Rich with illustrations and written in a clear and jargon-free style, Invitation to Vernacular Architecture is an ideal text for courses in architecture, material culture studies, historic preservation, American studies, and history, and a useful guide for anyone interested in the built environment. »--

Exploring America's material culture, Common Places reveals the history, culture, and social and class relationships that are the backdrop of the everyday structures and environments of ordinary people. Examining America's houses and cityscapes, its rural outbuildings and landscapes from perspectives including cultural geography, decorative arts, architectural history, and folklore, these articles reflect the variety and vibrancy of the growing field of vernacular architecture. In essays that focus on buildings and spaces unique to the U.S. landscape, Clay Lancaster, Edward T. Price, John Michael Vlach, and Warren E. Roberts reconstruct the social and cultural contexts of the modern bungalow, the small-town courthouse square, the shotgun house of the South, and the log buildings of the Midwest. Surveying the buildings of America's settlement, scholars including Henry Glassie, Norman Morrison Isham, Edward A. Chappell, and Theodore H. M. Prudon trace European ethnic influences in the folk structures of Delaware and the houses of Rhode Island, in Virginia's Renish homes, and in the Dutch barn widely repeated in rural America. Ethnic, regional, and class differences have flavored the nation's vernacular architecture. Fraser D. Neiman reveals overt changes in houses and outbuildings indicative of the growing social separation and increasingly rigid relations between seventeenth-century Virginia planters and their servants. Fred B. Kniffen and Fred W. Peterson show how, following the westward expansion of the nineteenth century, the structures of the eastern elite were repeated and often rejected by frontier builders. Moving into the twentieth century, James Borchert tracks the transformation of the alley from an urban home for Washington's blacks in the first half of the century to its new status in the gentrified neighborhoods of the last decade, while Barbara Rubin's discussion of the evolution of the commercial strip counterpoints the goals of city planners and more spontaneous forms of urban expression. The illustrations that accompany each article present the artifacts of America's material past. Photographs of individual buildings, historic maps of the nation's agricultural expanse, and descriptions of the household furnishings of the Victorian middle class, the urban immigrant population, and the rural farmer's homestead complete the volume, rooting vernacular architecture to the American people, their lives, and their everyday creations.

A comprehensive examination of American vernacular buildings.

​This book discusses applying vernacular strategies to modern architectural design to adhere to basic green principles of energy efficiency and materials utilization. Written from an international perspective, chapters present the perspectives and experiences of architects and engineers from across the globe. Historically successful approaches are integrated with modern design concepts to create novel, sustainable, and resource conscious solutions. The scope of topics covered include natural ventilation, cooling and heating, daylight and shading devices, and green micro-climate and functional facades, making this a useful reference for a wide range of researchers and workers in the built environment. Covers the most up-to-date research developments, best practices, and innovations from countries all over the globe; Presents the latest research in vernacular architecture and sustainable building; Contains case studies and examples to enhance practical application of the technologies presented.

Papers presented at various meetings of the forum.

Selected articles originally presented at the Vernacular Architecture Forum conference in Duluth, Minnesota (2002) and Newport Rhode Island (2001).

Local communities have adapted for centuries to challenging surroundings, resulting from unforeseen natural hazards. Vernacular architecture often reveals very intelligent responses attuned to the environment. Therefore, the question that emerged was: how did local populations prepare their dwellings to face frequent earthquakes? It was to respond to this gap in knowledge, that the SEISMIC-V research project was instigated, and this interdisciplinary international publication was prepared. The research revealed the existence of a local seismic culture, in terms of reactive or preventive seismic resistant measures, able to survive, if properly maintained, in areas with frequent earthquakes. The fundamental contribution and aims of the publication were to enhance: -The disciplinary interest in vernacular architecture; -Its contribution to risk mitigation in responding to natural hazards; -To encourage academic and scientific research collaboration among different disciplines; -To contribute to the improvement of vernacular dwellings, which half of the world’s population still inhabits nowadays. Fifty international researchers and experts presented case studies from Latin America, the Mediterranean, Eastern and Central Asia and the Himalayas region, with reference to 20 countries, i.e. Algeria, Bolivia, Bhutan, Chile, China, Egypt, El Salvador, Greece, Haiti, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Peru, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey and a closer detailed analysis of Portugal. This publication brings together 43 contributions, with new perspectives on seismic retrofitting techniques and relevant data, addressing vernacular architecture; an amazing source of knowledge, and to this day, home to 4 billion people.

Vernacular architecture represents a great resource that has considerable potential to define principles for sustainable design and contemporary architecture. This publication is the result of an overall aim to produce a valuable tool for analysis regarding vernacular heritage through different assessments, in order to define principles to consider for sustainable development. This was possible through a comprehensive reflection on the principles established and the strategies to recognise in different world contexts. The present publication was the result of an in-depth approach by 46 authors from 12 countries, concerned with the analysis and critical assessment of vernacular heritage and its sustainable perspective. The book presents 8 chapters addressing operational definitions and synopses advances, regarding the main areas of vernacular heritage contribution to sustainable architecture. It also presents 15 chapters and 53 case studies of vernacular and contemporary approaches in all the 5 continents, regarding urban, architectural, technical and constructive strategies and solutions. VERSUS, HERITAGE FOR TOMORROW: Vernacular Knowledge for Sustainable Architecture is the result of a common effort undertaken by the partners ESG | Escola Superior Gallaecia, Portugal, as Project leader; CRAterre | École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Grenoble, France; DIDA | Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy; DICAAR | Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy; and UPV | Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. This is the final outcome of VerSus, an European project developed from 2012 to 2014, in the framework of the Culture 2007-2013 programme.

Due to changing climates and demographics, questions of policy in the circumpolar north have focused attention on the very structures that people call home. Dwellings lie at the heart of many forms of negotiation. Based on years of in-depth research, this book presents and analyzes how the people of the circumpolar regions conceive, build, memorialize, and live in their dwellings. This book seeks to set a new standard for interdisciplinary work within the humanities and social sciences and includes anthropological work on vernacular architecture, environmental anthropology, household archaeology and demographics.