PHENOMENOLOGICAL VERNACULAR
Jennifer Kingston
1
Introduction
A Desire for Difference
2
gia is more appropriate, progress and building are
inevitable in a growing economy, what is neces-
sary, however is a consideration of context. Context
provides all the cues from which even market driven
architecture can be informed, consideration of mate-
rial and human experience would have resulted in a
far more appropriate output of suburban housing.
It would be amiss to attribute the problem to solely
housing when almost all building typologies fell
victim to the onslaught of economic growth. Large
office developments and brash shopping centres now
populate our cities, aiming for something of an inter-
national homogeneity. Perhaps, through examining
the alternative, architecture borne of context, both
social and economic it would have been possible to
avoid the current built environment of both city and
Fig 1 & 2. Ballyvourney Housing, CDA country. Certainly, pausing to identify ways in which
Associates, (Photo CDA Associates). a phenomenological vernacular has grown in spite of
such development, one can learn from the both the
mistakes and successes of others.
3
Chapter 1
Phenomenology and the Vernacular
4
ity of perceptual experience with a more concrete
understanding of human experience as a uniform
experience.5 The human body is not only an object
among all other objects but is part of a network of
perception, reacting to environmental pressures and
contextual influence. To understand the importance
of phenomenology in the description of the vernacu-
lar is to acknowledge that human experience is part
of a process which is modulated by time and cultural
Fig 3. Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 2001.
context.
5
Fig 5. In Connemara, Paul Henry (1876-1958)
6
ing traditional technologies. All forms of vernacular
architecture are built to meet specific needs, accom-
modating the values, economies and ways of living
in the cultures that produce them.”7 The vernacular
includes the collective wisdom and experience of a
society, which points towards a phenomenological
tradition, building typology evolves slowly around
the experiences and perception of a group of people.
Ideas of the vernacular are constantly evolving to try
and understand what might constitute the vernacular
in a post-industrialised era, no longer is the vernacu-
lar confined to the realms of the country cottage
or mud hut, now the vernacular can become more
encompassing stretching to include all architecture
that has the concerns of the human inhabitant and
a shared social understanding of cultural norms
and standards at its core.8 It is this definition of the
vernacular through which the evolution of certain
strands of Irish architecture must be viewed. Accord-
ing to Brunner the vernacular is essentially opposed
to rapid cultural and economic change, instead one
can track the steady growth of a set of ideals and
experiences through the vernacular tradition. To
recognise the importance of the vernacular is to also
recognise the importance of perception and phe-
nomenology in architecture, doing so allows one to
identify with the built environment at an experiential
level.
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Chapter 2
Vernacular and Time
8
notions of the vernacular. In order to track the devel-
opment of architecture with a link to the vernacular
one must look slightly closer.
9
between one room and another it is necessary to go
outside, a fact which seems perverse considering the
Irish climate however the house was only to be used
for three months during the summer. The site plan
shows the differing construction of the two types
of buildings, on one hand a traditional thick wall
and on the other a much lighter steel and timber
construction. All the buildings face the sea offering
links with the landscape, links with are furthered by
the fact that you must go outside in order to reach
another part of the house. The constant moving
between inside and outside allows for the building
to be experienced as a phenomenological sequence,
the changing temperatures and surface underfoot all
serving to strengthen the houses relationship to its
site.
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nacular is not about appearance but about presence.
It is a physical artefact which contains within itself
the continuously evolving social and technological
situation in which it was built. The way in which the
vernacular develops, through agglomeration and ad-
dition, the slow and steady way in which technology
is tested and absorbed into a tradition are of utmost
importance to giving a gravitas to the emotional
experience of buildings and developing an under-
standing of how fabrication and the vernacular can
hold an emotional weight in the psyche of a nation.
Anything that can contribute to the continuity of the
rich vernacular tradition can only be worth the effort
as it is only in reflecting on the past that architecture
can continue to be relevant to an evolving social and
cultural situation.
Fig 10 & 11. Bothár Buí, 2009, (Photo Laura Evans). The fusion of building and landscape.
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Chapter 3
Vernacular and Space
12
Ireland at the time, the end of the 1980s. Upon their
return to Ireland from working with Chipperfield in
Britain, O’ Donnell and Tuomey were determined to
re-engage with the Irish urban context, self described
as having “a deep appreciation for the heroic period
of modernism with a concern for context and the use
of historical precedent”.16 O’Donnell Tuomey view
the vernacular tradition as the possibility to relate
to nature and culture via ecology and craft, in short
Fig 12. Letterfrack Pavillion in Venice, 2004,
O’Donnell Tuomey see themselves as engaging “in
O’Donnell Tuomey
history as a living cultural presence”.17
13
Fig 14. Concept Sketch, An Gaeláras, O’ O’Donnell Tuomey, undoubtedly, have had a
Donnell Tuomey. huge impact on the dominant trends in Irish archi-
tecture, they have brought to the fore the importance
of building with phenomenology and the vernacular
context in mind. Contemporaries of O’Donnell
Tuomey, Grafton architects immediately come to
mind when searching for others who extol the virtues
of an architecture deeply rooted in context, however,
there are many others too, Dominic Stevens, CAST
and McCullough Mulvin to name but a few. The
Fig 15. Material in An Gaeláras,
understanding of building methods.
multifarious nature of the emerging vernacular is
evident in the vast spectrum of work produced across
the architectural firms; the importance of human
experience is, however, a constant.
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up by Cian Deegan and Alice Casey in 2006, who in
their 2009 entry to the Venice Biennale explore the
role of memory in a recently completed project in
Dublin. House 1 and 2 are built for two generations
of the same family, constructed through memory and
ritual. In the essay accompanying the piece in The
Lives of Spaces, TAKA explain how the houses were
constructed around pre-existing ritual and memory
of their future occupants. The living quarters of
both houses are centred on memories of activities in
the previous family home, a large concrete dining
table becomes an indicator of meals shared and the
creation of a room on the stairs recalls childhood
memories of the occupants. The houses are also a
Fig 16. Dining Table, House 1, TAKA (Photo play on vernacular use of material and construc-
Jenny Kingston). tion methods. The Flemish brick bond, no longer
functional in an age of layered construction, is pulled
apart to create a brick screen to the rear of the house
and a protrusion to the front. By pulling apart the
brick bond and assigning a new function to each part
TAKA are exploring the ways in which vernacular
building methods can be adjusted to suit contempo-
rary situations.19
Fig 17. Room created on staircase, House 2, Tradition can be viewed as the conscious and
TAKA, (Photo Jenny Kingston). creative adaptation of past experience and collec-
tive memory to the needs and circumstances of the
present.20 The vernacular is inextricable linked to
the role of memory in the creation of space and thus
to a phenomenological tradition. In order to create
architecture in which it is possible for the occupant
to identify with a lineage of cultural and social events
and actions, one must consider the ramifications of
memory in the space.
15
Conclusion
A Need For Change
16
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