
African Vernacular Architecture Database (2015) - Red_Tarsius
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2015/09/african-vernacular-architecture-database.html
======
Quequau
I didn't know what "Vernacular architecture" meant, so for everyone else who
doesn't know either and is waiting for the page to load here's the first
sentence in its Wikipedia entry:

Vernacular architecture is architecture characterised by the use of local
materials and knowledge, usually without the supervision of professional
architects. Vernacular buildings are typically simple and practical, whether
residential houses or built for other purposes.

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app4soft
Thanks!

In Ukraine vernacular architecture represented by _" khata"_ (ukr. "хата",
eng. "house").[0]

 _" Ukrains'ka khata"_ (ukr. "Українська хата"; eng. "Ukrainian house") is
some sort of house-building art objects and in our days is like cultural
heritage of Ukraine.[1]

Many examples of Ukrainian vernacular architecture you could see now in open-
air _Musem of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine_ aka _«Pyrohiv»_ (ukr.
Пирогів - village near Kyiv city).[2]

[0] [https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Хата](https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Хата)

[1]
[https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Українська_хата](https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Українська_хата)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrohiv](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrohiv)

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dmlorenzetti
I lived in Botswana for almost two years, in the late 1980s. In my village
there was a noticeable shift in housing style over time, as manufactured
materials (cinder block, sheet metal roofs, chain link fence) replaced their
traditional counterparts (mud/dung walls, thatch roof, piled-up bushes).

This shift in building style also brought about a shift in usage.

At the most visible level, round, amorphous shapes gave way to rectilinear
layouts.

The organization of family compounds also changed. Traditionally, one would
see 2-4 rondavels (round, single-room structures), all linked by a low wall
(lolwapa) into an inward-oriented cluster. That got replaced by a single,
larger house, presumably with multiple rooms inside.

In terms of usage, you could see the difference best in the middle of the day.
This is a desert country, and the modern materials and constructions are a
thermal disaster. Thick walls with a lot of thermal mass got replaced by low-
mass walls. Uninsulated tin roofs collect solar gains (and radiate heat,
becoming uncomfortably cold at night). Thatch roofs also tend to have wide
overhangs, providing shade at the side of houses.

As a result, people living in new houses tended to be outside, squeezed under
the shade of whatever scraggly trees there were. Those with traditional houses
tended to be inside, or sitting in the shade on the kind of built-up seat that
runs around many rondavels.

I never priced things out, but the only way to understand this shift had to be
as a function of cost. Thatch had to be imported, and I think doesn't last
beyond a decade at most. And the traditional walls required a lot more
seasonal maintenance.

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mikorym
If I go to the database/South Africa I can recognise many of these structures
(all are different types of huts), but without any notes or annotations.

What's interesting is that most houses being built in rural areas in SA (as
e.g. opposed to Botswana) are not true vernacular but cross over buildings. In
the process a lot of traditional architechture are being replaced; in this
regard I think what would be cool is to find talented architects to "preserve"
some of this in new commercial buildings.

Rural building are now much more Western (with huts having rooms are not
possible, you sort of can have "graphs" though). The budget constraints also
mean that houses may be built room by room over many years. One interesting
"vernacular" developments I would say is pillars. Rural villages love them! It
would be interesting to see how this evolves into a 21st century vernacular.

~~~
vanderZwan
> _Rural building are now much more Western (with huts having rooms are not
> possible, you sort of can have "graphs" though)._

Are you referring to the fractal structures found in many traditional African
building plans?

[https://www.ted.com/talks/ron_eglash_on_african_fractals](https://www.ted.com/talks/ron_eglash_on_african_fractals)

[https://homepages.rpi.edu/~eglash/eglash.dir/afractal/afract...](https://homepages.rpi.edu/~eglash/eglash.dir/afractal/afractal.htm)

~~~
mikorym
I watched the Ted video, it's interesting! And yes, it does talk about what I
had in mind, but of course with much more research and rigour. It would be
nice to get a copy of that book that the author wrote.

In any case, the fractal properties of African villages and other cultural
artifacts is an excellent topic for education in Africa in the future.

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tobr
Since the article is down, maybe change the URL to the page it describes?
[http://www.africavernaculararchitecture.com](http://www.africavernaculararchitecture.com)

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Stratoscope
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190612061050/https://www.notec...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190612061050/https://www.notechmagazine.com/2015/09/african-
vernacular-architecture-database.html)

~~~
app4soft
Thanks for archiving it!

I always make backups of interesting sites using Archive.org, but, think,
_African Vernacular Architecture Database_ should be printed by someone as a
book too ;-)

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drewbt
There are some interesting, award winning projects happening in Port
Elizabeth, South Africa that are incorporating recycled materials into the
vernacular.

These projects are to address the poor condition of schools, where children
are typically taught in overcrowded shacks.

[https://www.archdaily.com/875103/silindokuhle-preschool-
coll...](https://www.archdaily.com/875103/silindokuhle-preschool-collectif-
saga)

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SturgeonsLaw
It's nice to see projects of passion like this contribute to the global
knowledge base

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johnny313
This reminds me of some of the work Google is doing to build more
representative image datasets for machine learning model development [0]. What
a great resource!

[0] [https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/09/introducing-inclusive-
imag...](https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/09/introducing-inclusive-images-
competition.html)

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chirau
Does the U.S. have any "vernacular architecture"?

~~~
raslah
Yes, like most countries it varies by region mostly because of the history of
the area. I’m from the Deep South and grew up in a ‘shotgun’ styled house
built in the early 30s. You see this style most famously in cities like New
Orleans. Many of the original homes of this style are sometimes remodeled to a
certain degree with new siding and a metal roof although some still retain
their original asphalt shingle siding, which I love. My town, which is very
small (pop. >300) and economically depressed, is full of them and on the rare
occasion that a modern home is built here it stands out like a sore thumb. The
‘nicer’ houses built around the same time period, if they’ve survived, have
basements or very high crawl spaces as this is a flood plain of the
Mississippi River, and the 1927 Flood devastated the area. This style is less
common but there are a few examples here and many more in other towns nearby.

~~~
chirau
I looked up shotgun house. Interesting.

Sidenote: you said your town is about 300 people? What do you do for work
there? Or do you work remote?

~~~
raslah
I’m a sysadmin, I drive an hour to a larger town everyday.

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kashishgrover
I think the #1 spot on HackerNews is bringing so much load to the site that it
is taking too long to respond :P

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Iv
URL does not work.

EDIT: Now it does

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kashishgrover
keep refreshing :P

