Vernacular Architecture

ARCH 514 | History of Filipino Architecture

Slideshow developed by: Arch. Edeliza V. Macalandag, UAP Bohol Island State University | College of Architecture & Engineering

Defining the Vernacular

Vernacular, what?

Indigenous

Defining the Vernacular

Vernacular, what?

Folk

Defining the Vernacular

Vernacular, what?

Tribal

Defining the Vernacular

Vernacular, what?

Ethnic

Defining the Vernacular

Vernacular, what?

Traditional

Defining the Vernacular

Vernacular, what?

Indigenous Folk Tribal Ethnic Traditional

Defining the Vernacular

Vernacular, what?

Primitive

Barbarism

Western

Ethnic

Civilization

Anonymous

Defining the Vernacular

Vernacular, what?
From Latin, vernaculus, means native. Vernacular Architect refers to the grammar, syntax, and diction in expressing buildings in a locale, while signifying the diverse range of building traditions in a region.

Defining the Vernacular

5 Principal Features of Vernacular Architecture

1.

2.
3. 4. 5.

The builders, whether artisans or those planning to live in the buildings, are non-professional architects or engineers. There is constant adaptation, using natural materials, to the geographical environment. The actual process of construction involves intuitive thinking, done without the use of blueprints, and is open to later modifications. There is balance between social/economic functionality and aesthetic features. Architectural patters and styles are subject to a protracted evolution o traditional styles specific to an ethnic domain.

Vernacular Architecture

All forms of vernacular architecture are built to meet specific needs, primary of which is the accommodation of values, economies and ways of living of the culture that produced them.

Vernacular Architecture

Beyond the basic requirements of shelter, they stand as paradigms of man-made order constructed in response to a tangible and immediate world of nature.

Vernacular Architecture

The building technology developed by the vernacular tradition is sustained through independent evolution and accumulation of local wisdom. Vernacular architecture:

1. embodies the communal 2. symbolizes the cultural, and 3. concretizes the abstract

Vernacular Balai

The vernacular balai is the "pure, Southeast Asian type of domestic architecture found in the non-Hispanized, non-Anglo-Saxon communities around the country"
- Ma. Corazon A. Hila, "The Ethnic Balai: Living in Harmony with Nature", Balai Vernacular (1992)

The balai is viewed as the origin of Philippine traditional architecture.

Vernacular Balai Austronesian ancestry is manifested in its archetypal tropical characteristics:

Elevated floor Buoyant rectangular volume Raised pile foundation Voluminous thatched roof

Austronesian Building Heritage and the Aquatic Cultural Network of Asia-Pacific

Austronesian Building Heritage and the Aquatic Cultural Network of Asia-Pacific

Coastal Tausug House

The Austronesian House

Lexically reconstructed forms of these various house terms are (Robert Blust, 1987):

rumag balay lepaw kamalir banua

The Austronesian House

Rumaq
- Most widely distributed term for house - Iban, Gerai, Minangkabau (rumah) and Rotinese vocabulary - similar to Badjao stilt house, luma

The Austronesian House

Balay
- house in Isneg, Cebuano (Philippines) - public meeting house in Malay languages - reflexes also mean house

- Fijian, vale
- Samoan, fale, - Hawaiian, hale

The Austronesian House

Lepaw
- storehouse for grain (Ngaju, lepau) - hut other than longhouse (Uma Juman, lep) - back verandah or kitchen verandah of Malay House (Malay, lepau) - long, slow moving houseboat with no outrigger (Badjao, lepa)

The Austronesian House

Kamalir
- granary, storehouse, barn (Philippines, kamalig or kamarin) - Oceanic language, mens house

The Austronesian House

Banua
- house in Malayo-Polynesian languages: - Toraja, banua - Banggai, bonua - Wolio, banua - Molima, vanua - Wosi-Mana, wanua - more reflexes, denotes it as: land, country, place, settlement, inhabited territory, village

Naga: Austronesian Water Symbol

Stilt Houses: An Austronesian Legacy

Coastal Tausug House

The Raised Pile Foundation

Some advantages of Pile Foundations: Piles raise the living floor above the mud and flood waters Provide excellent under-floor ventilation Small fire lit under the house drive mosquitoes away Make housework easy
Ifugao fale

Voluminous Thatch Roof

Voluminous Thatch Roof

Traditional Materials and Construction Techniques

Traditional Materials and Construction Techniques

Structures without nails (pegging, wedging, binding)

The House as Ritually Ordered Space

Tausug houses line coastal areas of the Sulu archipelago in Mindanao

Regional House Types

Monsoon Frontiers: Ivatan Houses

Monsoon Frontiers: Ivatan Houses

Monsoon Frontiers: Ivatan Houses

Monsoon Frontiers: Ivatan Houses

Monsoon Frontiers: Ivatan Houses

Cordillera Houses

William Henry Scotts Classification of Cordillera Houses

Isneg House Cordillera Region

Isneg House Cordillera Region

Kalinga Octagonal House Cordillera Region

Kalinga Octagonal House Cordillera Region

Kalinga Octagonal House Cordillera Region

Kalinga Rectangular House Cordillera Region

Bontoc House (afong/ katyufong)

Bontoc House (afong/ fayu)

Bontoc House

Ifugao House (fale)

Ifugao House

Ifugao House

Ifugao House

Halipan, Ifugao House

Kankanay House

Lowland Vernacular Dwellings: The Bahay Kubo

Bontoc House

Bontoc House

Organic Materials for Indigenous Constructions

References
Lico, Gerard (2008). Arkitekturang Filipino: A History of Architecture and Urbanism in the Philippines. Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Press.