1. Week 6： the rural vernacular
1.1. The rural vernacular architecture is a physical representation of the social, economic, and cultural system in a village.
1.1.1. perspectives on the rural vernacular
1.1.1.1. Rural vernacular buildings range from nomadic tents and yurts to more permanent farm structures
1.1.1.1.1. These buildings are largely made up of natural and locally available materials: for instance, timber, mud, stones, vegetation, farm or animal products.
1.1.1.1.2. Some more developed rural traditions employ manufactured building materials such as cement, glass, bricks, and roof tiles made of burned clay, lime plastering, metals, and corrugated tin sheets.
1.1.2. settlement and setting
1.1.2.1. A setting is a place in which something, for example, a group of nomadic people are embedded.
1.1.2.2. A settlement is a place where people establish a community.
1.1.3. the value of vernacular architecture
1.1.3.1. The rural vernacular architecture is a physical representation of the social, economic, and cultural system in a village.
1.1.4. the spatial side of the rural vernacular encironment
1.1.5. the timeless way of building
2. week 7: The urban vernacular
2.1. The city as a cultural milieu
2.1.1. People come to cities for economic opportunity.
2.1.2. that cities are concentrations of creative production, and of culture, and there are a lot of people
2.1.3. So, the variety of vernacular building one sees in the city comes largely out of the multiplicity of purposes serving the daily lives of the ordinary people. This is what makes a city culturally rich and diverse.
2.2. The place of buildings in the city
2.2.1. The location of buildings depends on the pattern of the streets.
2.2.2. The relative positions of dwellings and commercial buildings depend on the economic factor and on the different functions of dwellings and commerce.
2.3. the types of urban vernacular buildings
2.4. building the urban vernacular
2.4.1. urban landscape
2.4.1.1. Urban vernacular buildings have evolved over time. They evolve as a culture economy have changed, as the materials of buildings have changed, as businesses have gotten bigger and production has gotten more complex.
2.4.1.2. urban landscape
2.4.1.2.1. connection to the street is important
3. Week 8:Informal settlements and the vernacular
3.1. Types of informal seeelements
3.1.1. Informal settlements may be classified according to the kinds of land they occupied and the ways in which they are designed and built.
3.1.2. They may occupy tracts of land on the outskirts of cities
3.1.2.1. hillsides
3.1.2.2. river bank or cemeteries or land adjacent to railroads， highways or public facilities or tracts of lands
3.1.3. In all of these situations, the occupation of the land is formally illegal. But in many cases, it represents the best possible alternative for people who are trying to make their living in a city, as people always have.
3.1.4. The different forms of settlements have different modes of origin and different kinds of layouts
3.2. vernacular values of them
3.2.1. There are three issues about these houses that makes them similar to other vernacular buildings we have been looking at.
3.2.1.1. 1）being built with commonly understood patterns and materials.
3.2.1.2. 2) being built in a piecemeal fashion.
3.2.1.3. 3) being built within a complex culture of material supply and expertise.
3.2.2. settlement has an organized economy.
3.3. The economy within informal settlements
3.3.1. Informal settlements is places of intense economic enterprise and businesses.
3.3.2. Shandow economy
3.3.2.1. shadow economy provides employment to hundreds of thousands of people.
3.3.3. environment
3.3.3.1. The environment of the informal settlement provides an ideal home for this economy. Shops are small, allowing a very small number of people to be employed in each. It does not take much money to provide space and there is a lot of flexibility as the building can be easily combined or a number of them on the same street or alley can easily work together. The physical environment actually provides for a very efficient economic network.
3.4. Improvement efforts
3.4.1. problems
3.4.1.1. people do not own the land
3.4.1.2. no ownership
3.4.1.3. government
3.4.1.4. effort
3.4.1.4.1. a lot of places: government willlisten to local people, local organizations, local grassroots organizations,non-governmental organizations are trying to advocate on behalf of the people who are living in these places
3.4.1.4.2. some places:vernment listens and sometimes the government doesn't listen.
3.5. informal settlements and the future of cities
3.5.1. they are part of urban vernacular
3.5.2. more and more people begin to take in the respect of informal settlements as another form of urban cultural milieu.
4. Week 9: Architectural Conservation of the Built vernacular heritage
4.1. definition of the architectural conservation
4.1.1. it is a process
4.1.2. meaning is maintaining the cultural values of vernacular buildings.
4.2. vernacular architecture's cultural significance and value
4.2.1. cultural significance
4.2.1.1. "value of a place"
4.2.1.1.1. tangible attributes
4.2.1.1.2. intangible attributes
4.2.2. values
4.2.2.1. types of values
4.2.2.1.1. historical values
4.2.2.1.2. Aesthetic and artistic value:
4.2.2.1.3. Scientific and research value:
4.2.2.1.4. Social and identity value:
4.2.2.2. It is a measure of the relative worth,or relative importance, of a good or service.
4.2.2.3. UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE LIST
4.2.2.3.1. Sites must possess what is known as "outstanding universal value."
4.3. conservation approach to vernacular heritage
4.3.1. two fundamental principles in making refurbishments to the built heritage.
4.3.1.1. One, the refurbishment must not affect the cultural values of the structure.
4.3.1.2. Two, whatever new materials are added, or modifications are made, they are reversible, meaning that the original fabric is not removed.
4.3.2. "Conservation is the art of controlling change."
4.4. a paradigm shift in heritage conservation
4.4.1. paradigm shift
4.4.1.1. conservation is for the benefit of the future generation based on the interpretations of the values and cultural significance of the present.
4.4.2. The architectural conservation of vernacular built heritage can help us eliminate ignorance and neglect of the everyday environment we live in and nurture our cultural identities.
5. Week 10: the future of Asia's Vernacular Architecture
5.1. Tradition vs. modernity
5.1.1. "Tradition and modernity are two sides of the same coin: no society referred to itself as traditional before the first few centuries, and the idea of the traditional did not arise until the invention and articulation of the modern."
5.1.2. "To understand the tradition-modernity dialectic, its historic continuum and its effects on the built environment, it is important to focus on one of the most significant aspects of modernity itself, that is, modernity as an experience."
5.1.3. tradition
5.1.3.1. dynamic project
5.1.3.2. looking at the vernacular tradition in two distinct aspects:
5.1.3.2.1. Tradition as a product and tradition as a process.
5.1.4. modernity
5.1.4.1. Nothing will never die, the future of our cultural landscape is continuing
5.2. the living tradition
5.2.1. a huge challenge
5.2.1.1. younger generation normally see these things as backwards, primitive, old fashioned, and they want to live in high-rises, where there are modern facilities.
5.2.2. "Tradition in the obvious sense of a visible past inheritance can only be partly helpful, for the reality today is different. The architect must find what is right for the present circumstances and if he is sufficiently probing and profound, he will make a valid addition to the stock of forms."
6. Week1：What is vernacular architecture
6.1. the definition of vernacular architecture
6.1.1. the definition is vary.
6.1.1.1. 1) traditonal
6.1.1.2. 2) sharing knowledge which is commonly shared among the people of culture and being part of people.
6.1.1.3. 3) some people think it is likely to be built in a particular time, at a particular time.
6.2. Threats in Asia to traditional vernacular architecture
6.2.1. 1. Unprecedented growth and change in Asia-population concentrating in cities.
6.2.2. 2. pressure from competing high-value activities-land price
6.2.3. 3.impact of major infrastructure programs-boilding more high ways.
6.2.4. 4.environmental pressure-uncontrolled carbon emission and polluted industrial waste.
6.2.5. 5.carrying capacity-excessive use of rivers and deforestation for human habitation
6.2.6. 6.causes that are human, such war, theft, neglect, illegal trade
6.2.7. 7. natural causes by earthquake, typhoon, flood, tidal wave, humidity and insects.
6.3. Ways to appreciate your own environment
6.3.1. we should reading our environment from following ascepts: architectural, cultural, sociological, economic, environmental, geographical and conservationist.
7. Week2: People, Culture and the Vernacular
7.1. Culture as a form of traditon
7.1.1. Culture embodies the complexity of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterise a society of social group. It includes not only arts and letters, but also modes of life, fundamental rights of people, their value systems, traditions and beliefs.
7.2. People, ideas of use and vernacular architecture
7.2.1. "Traditional architecture is a result of man's elemental needs and his intricate relationship with the society and the environment he lives in."
7.2.2. different cultures or ethnic groups would have their own ways of building and association with the spiritual world in which they also reside.
8. Week3: Climate and the Vernacular
8.1. The eight major climatic belts in Asia
8.1.1. From the north to the south, these climatic belts are:
8.1.1.1. 1）the arctic and subarctic regions of Siberia,
8.1.1.2. 2）the continental climate in Mongolia and northern Asia,
8.1.1.3. 3）desert in northern Asia around the Gobi Desert,
8.1.1.4. 4）montane in the Himalayan region, Tibet and central Asia,
8.1.1.5. 5）maritime in Japan
8.1.1.6. 6）sub-tropical climate in most coastal China, including Honk Kong and Macau,
8.1.1.7. 7) monsoon in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and central India.
8.1.1.8. 8) Tropical and equatorial climates in Indonesia, Malaysia,Singapore, the Philippines, and western India.
9. Week4: Materials, Construction and the Vernacular
9.1. building materials
9.1.1. natural
9.1.1.1. The use of natural materials such as mud, clay, wood, stone, grass, animal products and timber
9.1.2. manufactured
9.1.2.1. burned clay bricks
9.1.2.2. clay roofing tiles
9.1.2.3. lime and gypsum plastering used in decorations
9.1.2.4. lime mortar used in brick constructions
9.2. Building methods, structural systems, and workmanship
9.2.1. Often the building methods, structure systems and workmanship represent the wisdom of the individual or a group, and the way this knowledge is shared and passed from one generation to the next.
9.2.2. some example
9.2.2.1. mud in cave dwellings
9.2.2.2. mud towers in ujian Province.
9.3. building rituals
9.3.1. The building rituals, from the harvesting of building materials to the selection of auspicious days, to the start of construction, to the construction process, to the completion, and to the occupation by the owner are all guarded by the spirit.
9.3.1.1. Fengshui
9.3.1.1.1. The basic premise of feng shui is to locate the 'qi' of the building site by means of a compass called 'luo pan'.
9.4. building dimensioning
9.4.1. the dimensions of buildings must be congruent with the cosmos to ensure that nothing goes against nature.
9.4.2. The 'secret rhyme'
9.4.3. the most fundamental way of dimensioning comes from the human body.
9.4.3.1. foot size
10. Week5: Vernacular Landscape
10.1. the concept of landscape
10.1.1. natural
10.1.2. man made
10.2. what is vernacular landscape?
10.2.1. man made landscaope
10.2.2. "culture"
10.2.2.1. is that they are not always created by professional designers or planners. In fact, by far the vast majority of cultural landscapes are built by common people.
10.2.2.2. According to Professor Melnick, "These ordinary, or vernacular landscapes, which generally evolve unintentionally and represent multiple layers of time and cultural activity, are fundamental to our very existence."
10.3. sense of place
10.3.1. explaining this hard-to-describe bonding between human beings and ordinary places.
10.3.2. latin term: genius loci