Built Heritage· 2026Q1
Vernacularity as tactic and strategy: architecture and the politics of designation
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Designating buildings as 'vernacular' can be a tool for both marginalizing and resisting subaltern groups, with implications mirroring Orientalism, according to an analysis of Greece and Thailand.
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Key points
- Attributing 'vernacularity' to buildings can be a social process involving co-optation, marginalization, or resistance.
- Examples from Greece and Thailand illustrate the dual nature of vernacular designation, akin to Orientalism.
- The concept of 'local knowledge' shares similar ambiguities with the designation of vernacular architecture.
- Confronting inequalities requires stripping vernacularity of derogatory connotations and recognizing shared human architectural capacities.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract Who essentialises the vernacular? Essentialising attributions of vernacularity within a nation-state, as also those of Orientalism at the international level, may represent both co-optation and marginalisation of the subaltern by political or expert authorities. It may also represent an act of resistance, resilience, or ‘subversive archaism’ against such forces. Essentialisation is always a social process – often a speech act (heritage designation offers a pertinent example) or its architectural equivalent. Using examples mostly from Greece and Thailand– both countries with an ambiguous relationship with European colonialism – we can connect the real dangers and potential benefits of designating specific buildings as vernacular with the similar ambiguities inherent in the concept of ‘local knowledge’. It is only by stripping vernacularity of its derogatory implications and by accepting the common human capacities realised in all architecture that we can confront the inequalities often generated by the selective attribution of vernacularity to rural and marginalised populations and trace these inequalities to their European colonial sources.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Built Heritage, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Archeology (Arts and Humanities)
ArcheologyArts and Humanities