History of Art and Architecture VI: Vernacular: Architecture's Persistent Other

Abstract

The term “vernacular architecture” is a recent invention, but the idea is as old as architecture itself: From the moment someone defined and legislated what is the art of building and who is allowed to practice it, an “other” and an “outside” was born. This course will trace the different definitions of this other and their implications, from contemporary architecture back to the middle ages.

Objective

- Historicization and relativization of the concept of "vernacular architecture" and its various synonyms ("anonymous", "primitive", "traditional", "informal", "rustic", etc). - Critical understanding of different definitions of architecture and their ideological predicaments and implications. - Analysis of rhetorical strategies in primary textual sources and of iconographic motifs in a variety of images and representations.

Content

The term “vernacular architecture” is a recent invention, but the idea is as old as architecture itself: From the moment someone tried to define and legislate what is the art of building and who is allowed to practice it, an “other” and “outside” was born. Or at least it began to be noticed and retroactively defined. Going backwards in time, the course will examine a variety of case-studies: Contemporary projects inspired by pre-modern vernaculars, 20th-century manifestos in defense of “informal” settlements and “primitive” dwellings, 19th-century stagings of nationalized and exoticized folklore, 18th-century “cottages ornés” and “fêtes pastorales”, 17th-century Dutch paintings of rowdy peasants, early-modern descriptions of primitive huts, and medieval tapestries of “Wild people [Wildleute]” and their adobes. Through this selective series of episodes, the course will trace the different (counter-)definitions the vernacular as the ever-present other of official, urban, academically informed, technologically advanced and designed architecture. The course will take place as a series of lectures (by the tutor and possible guests), followed by group conversation on assigned materials. There will be a short written assignment to be handed in at the end of term. This course is a combination of lecture and discussion in class. Occasional at-home graded assignments and active in-class participation are required; it is not possible to participate remotely. The final assignment is a written research assignment (due during the exam period).

Resources