'Blinded by the STARchitect' The Hidden Existence of Vernacular Architecture

To give society a voice in architecture, Giancarlo De Carlo encourages us to look past ‘the few great spirits’ and ‘the crowd of imitators beneath them.’ In the lecture, we learned that Giancarlo De Carlo challenged architects to try and understand the world through individuals versus a formula. Little did De Carlo know, his solution went beyond giving society a means to participation, but it speaks to the many designers and builders who have gone invisible due to the focus on the tradition of arts and academia. Vernacular or folk architecture is a building created outside of any academic tradition, by someone with little to no professional guidance. Vernacular architecture is not a particular architectural movement or style, but usually serves immediate, local needs, is constrained by the materials available within a particular region and reflects local traditions and cultural practices. Vernacular architecture can have ties to traditional building methods, ethnicities, and regions. It pays little attention to what may be fashionable but still puts on whatever beautiful aesthetic of what is culturally relevant to that community. Even more, vernacular architecture is the essence of sustainability because it is created by local communities that build around their environment and climates- putting buildings on stilts to prevent from flooding and splitting them in half like allowing for cross-ventilation in the centers of warmer climates.