CONTEMPORARY VERNACULAR: REFRAMING POPULAR HOUSING PROCESSES

Despite recent critiques, vernacular architecture is still largely associated with traditional practices and forms and believed to be found only in rural areas and historic centres. The vernacular is identified directly with the past and is believed to be under threat from contemporary values and globalisation; and unless efforts are made to preserve, conserve and rescue it, then it will disappear. Such perspectives tend to be based on static notions of culture which underplay processes of cultural change and the material culture of construction. Views are frequently clouded by romantic, visually-based preconceptions and value judgements which are also used to produce negative critiques of informal settlements. The views of the users rarely figure in these analyses: inhabitants of traditional environments are frequently keen to modernise, whereas inhabitants of informal settlements rarely select traditional materials and forms. Whilst recognising the significance of traditional vernacular built environments, this paper will argue that it is vital to acknowledge current building processes, particularly the ‘popular construction’ taking place on a massive scale in informal settlements in the cities of the developing world. These settlements are frequently assumed to be the opposite of vernacular environments, but on closer inspection we can find many parallels and similarities. Several theorists have proposed overlapping analytical frameworks which aim to address the broad spectrum of non-professionally produced environments and consider not only product, use and process characteristics but also issues of constraint and context. This paper will sketch out the key characteristics of these frameworks and the presentation will demonstrate their relevance using data from a number of studies. The primary evidence will come from a longitudinal ethnographic study of the growth and development of informal settlements in Latin America. This will be complemented by recent studies from Indonesia and Thailand which in different ways explore the interface and overlap between traditional vernacular and contemporary popular processes and environments. In conclusion the paper will attempt to demonstrate that far from inhabiting separate universes there are many points of commonality, and that if our definitions are appropriately framed, we may regard much contemporary construction to be a continuation of existing vernacular traditions.