New vernacular construction: Environmental awareness and territorial inclusivity

Abstract Studies on vernacular architecture document the built heritage; discuss its preservation; and sometimes focus on its sustainability, expressing admiration for the wisdom it embodies. Traditional buildings are exemplary in terms of embodied environmental impact, but can hardly be transformed into ‘sustainable’ buildings in the contemporary sense, for legal, cost, technical, or cultural reasons. Today’s lifestyles and expectations of comfort are very different from the original ones. Much appreciation of vernacular buildings derives from an aestheticising approach that emphasises appearance and craftsmanship. Such appreciation is tied to the perpetuation of ‘traditional’ forms but can lead to gentrify heritage and to design buildings that are unaffordable to local individuals and communities. We present not a literature review, but a theoretical proposal of a new vernacular, rooted in locality (origin of materials, socio-economic system, skills, etc., drawing inspiration from food self-sufficiency policies) and affordable by everyone – as it was the case with ‘traditional’ vernacular – but also able to respond to contemporary priorities such as counteracting climate change by opting for negative-embodied carbon materials, and meeting present expectations of comfort. Each of these criteria is discussed in detail. Within such constraints, we claim there would still much scope for creativity and innovation in terms of architectural design, behavioural choices, and policy adoption. The analysis of four recent buildings designed by outstanding contemporary architects in three continents completes the paper, substantiating very different examples in tune with the proposed approach. Open questions – including regarding the possibility of future identification of quantitative thresholds to describe ‘new vernacular’ buildings – are discussed in the conclusion.