Vernacular Architecture: What We Can Learn From It?
Last Updated: Apr 7, 2025People and cultures around the world have been building homes for as long as humanity has existed. From tiny caves adapted to make life liveable for our earlier human ancestors to beautiful adobe haciendas made from the mud beneath our feet, vernacular architecture has been a uniquely human response to fashioning dwellings in the local context and the availability of local materials.
Modern-day construction is mainly dependent on the global supply chain of products shipped across the world. In contrast, vernacular traditions arose from local knowledge of the specific and contextual conditions near the site's location. Few Americans will be willing to return to mud huts, teepees, or longhouses (and building codes will most likely make that an impossibility). But, we would benefit from seeking out the wisdom and ancestral knowledge inherent to vernacular architecture.
Table of Contents
- What is Vernacular Architecture?
- How Modern-Day Architectural Design Overshadows
- How Can You Integrate Vernacular and Modern Architecture?
- What Modern Buildings and Architects Use Vernacular Architecture?
What is Vernacular Architecture?
Vernacular architecture is a building style designed around local needs, customs, and available materials. Some experts maintain that vernacular architecture is characterized by buildings constructed by people without formal studies in architecture. However, local builders often have generations of regional knowledge passed down through a series of apprenticeships.
While modern-day construction is often focused on aesthetic concerns and designed for comfort and luxury, vernacular architecture tends to be more pragmatic, focusing on the functional liveability of a home.
Author and architect Ronald Brunskill defines vernacular architecture as structures designed by untrained amateurs. He states that a vernacular builder would be guided by local conventions and would pay little attention to fashionable building trends, and aesthetic considerations are minimal. Brunskill notes that a building's function is the dominant factor in vernacular architecture and that it would be built with local materials, almost exclusively. Imported materials are seldom used.
How Modern-Day Architectural Design Overshadows
Buildings account for 36 percent of the world's energy consumption and 39 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Much of this excessive energy expenditure is because of the globalization of supply chains. As such, modern homes in America might source their 2x4s from Canadian-grown pine trees, their hardwood flooring from Mahogany in Africa, and marble countertops from Italy.
The globalization of our society has also allowed modern, western construction techniques to dominate and, in essence, replace vernacular traditions. Unfortunately, much modern-day construction is both energy-intensive and energy inefficient.
How Can You Integrate Vernacular and Modern Architecture?
Vernacular architectural traditions have a lot that they can teach modern-day architects and home contractors. Below, we look at four of the most important lessons we can learn from vernacular architectural traditions and think about how to integrate them into modern architecture.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
