The vernacular as a model for sustainable design

Abstract

The paper describes an innovative approach to teaching and learning the subjects of vernacular architecture and sustainable design. The method forms a key part of the World Architecture module, which is taught to first year students at The Welsh School of Architecture. A week-long environmental design block course employs the collection of vernacular buildings at St. Fagans open air museum as 'laboratories', enabling students to appreciate how design with climate is effectively conducted in vernacular architecture. In this experience-based learning context, students develop skills in measuring, observation, recording and analysis; leading to an embedded understanding of the physical characteristics and environmental performance of real buildings. Following the block course and a series of lectures focusing on issues in world vernacular architecture, students are encouraged to 'model' lessons learnt from the vernacular, and to employ them in their own designs. The module uses and addresses issues raised at the recent conference 'Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty First Century: Theory, Education and Practice'. The paper illustrates both the educational process and outcomes that have been achieved using vernacular architecture as a source of information and inspiration.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 10 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.