What is Architecture? Architecture is an art, a science, and practice of designing and constructing buildings, and it is everywhere! Architecture is built for several different purposes such as homes, offices, schools, temples, shopping malls, bridges, art galleries, and museums. It emerges as a result of certain factors which include the climate, geography, resources, culture, economy, and most importantly ‘need’. These factors also give birth to a certain vernacularism in the kind of built environment, which differs with variable geographies. This vernacularism also shapes the identity of a region.
Today, the world is growing at a rate faster than ever. Countries over the world are competing amongst themselves on the scales of development. And this competition is taking place at the cost of depletion of resources, environment, and identity. Architecture today is driven not by human needs but by capitalist forces hoping to make endless amounts of money. And as a result, vernacular architecture is losing its ground to cheap building practices in our modern cities, making them look homogenous. Vernacular architecture is innately a result of the humanistic desire to be culturally grounded in one’s surroundings, one which is pluralistic, multi-faceted, and fluid like the societies of the world.
This project intends to throw light on vernacular architecture in terms of not just sustainability but also identity. This work comprises a series of collages and photomontages which aim to showcase the intricacies of vernacular architecture and also comment on the discrepancies between modern urban architecture and the vernacular. It brings forth the reasons why it is critical now, more than ever, to remember the roots of the developmental tree to progress in synergy with the environment and not against it.
Architecture, Collage, Photography, Sustainability, Vernacular
