Editing Vernacular architecture (section)

==Vernacular and the architect==

Architecture designed by professional architects is usually not considered to be vernacular. Indeed, it can be argued that the very process of consciously designing a building makes it not vernacular. [[Paul Oliver]], in his book ''Dwellings'', states: "it is contended that 'popular architecture' designed by professional architects or commercial builders for popular use, does not come within the compass of the vernacular".<ref name="Oliver2003" >{{cite book
  |last1=Oliver |first1=Paul |author-link1=Paul Oliver
  |title=Dwellings 
  |year=2003 
  |publisher=Phaidon Press |location=London
  |isbn=0-7148-4202-8
  |page=15
}}</ref>{{rp|15}} Oliver also offers the following simple definition of vernacular architecture: "the architecture of the people, and by the people, but not for the people."<ref name="Oliver2003"/>{{rp|14}}

[[Frank Lloyd Wright]] described vernacular architecture as "Folk building growing in response to actual needs, fitted into environment by people who knew no better than to fit them with native feeling".<ref name="Oliver2003"/>{{rp|9}} suggesting that it is a primitive form of design, lacking intelligent thought, but he also stated that it was "for us better worth study than all the highly self-conscious academic attempts at the beautiful throughout Europe".

[[File:Velika planina 031.JPG|thumbnail|right|A post-World War II dwelling at the [[Big Pasture Plateau]], [[Slovenia]], designed by the architect [[Vlasto Kopač]] and based on the vernacular architecture of this mountainous area]]

Since at least the [[Arts and Crafts Movement]], many modern architects have studied vernacular buildings and claimed to draw inspiration from them, including aspects of the vernacular in their designs. In 1946, the [[Egypt]]ian architect [[Hassan Fathy]] was appointed to design the town of [[New Gourna]] near [[Luxor]]. Having studied traditional [[Nubian people|Nubian]] settlements and technologies, he incorporated the traditional mud brick vaults of the Nubian settlements in his designs. The experiment failed, due to a variety of social and economic reasons.<ref name="Oliver2003"/>{{rp|11}}

Sri Lankan architect [[Geoffrey Bawa]] is considered the pioneer of regional modernism in [[South Asia]]. Along with him, modern proponents of the use of the vernacular in architectural design include [[Charles Correa]], a well known Indian architect; [[Muzharul Islam]] and [[Bashirul Haq]], internationally known [[List of Bangladeshi architects|Bangladeshi architects]]; [[Balkrishna Doshi]], another Indian, who established the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation in [[Ahmedabad]] to research the vernacular architecture of the region; and [[Sheila Sri Prakash]] who has used rural Indian architecture as an inspiration for innovations in environmental and socio-economically sustainable design and planning. The Dutch architect [[Aldo van Eyck]] was also a proponent of vernacular architecture,<ref name="Oliver2003"/> as were [[Samuel Mockbee]], [[Christopher Alexander]], and [[Paolo Soleri]].

Oliver claims that:
<blockquote>As yet there is no clearly defined and specialized discipline for the study of dwellings or the larger compass of vernacular architecture. If such a discipline were to emerge it would probably be one that combines some of the elements of both architecture and anthropology with aspects of history and geography.<ref name="Oliver2003"/>{{clarify|date=September 2013}}</blockquote>

Architects have developed a renewed interest in vernacular architecture as a model for sustainable design.<ref>Forster, W., Heal, A. and Paradise, C., "The Vernacular as a Model for Sustainable Design" Chapter 14 in: W. Weber, S. Yannas, ''Lessons from Vernacular Architecture'', Routledge, 2013</ref> Contemporary [[complementary architecture]] is informed largely by vernacular architecture.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015|title=Manifesto of Complementary Architecture (MOCA) – Complementary Architecture|url=https://complementaryarchitecture.org/manifesto/|access-date=17 October 2020|language=en-US}}</ref>