Climate and Contemporary Transformations of Vernacular Architecture - Interaction, Effects and Perspectives

Introduction

The majority of the world’s population still live in vernacular buildings which are based on local knowledge. Climate has a significant impact on the use and evolution of local building techniques and building design.

Project Focus

CLIMATE-Arch will focus on the processes involved in the transformation of local building techniques caused by climate and climate change. A wide range of local material resources and natural environmental conditions, and the effects of climate change, produce various kinds of technical adaptations.

Research Scope

CLIMATE-Arch will explore these transformations and their drivers at the level of both building technology and building design, focusing on two regions in Eurasia that use a range of local building technologies.

Previous Research Limitations

Most previous research on the impact of climate change has taken a mono-disciplinary approach, primarily not considering the processes responsible for the evolution and transformation of buildings. These processes principally stem from the inextricable link between material and environmental conditions.

Innovative Approach

CLIMATE-Arch will break new ground by examining the factors that trigger vernacular transformation through a climate lens, combining climate research and the disciplines of architecture, engineering, natural environmental sciences, and sociology.

Long-term Relevance

As the project will examine vernacular changes expected as a result of predicted climate change, the results will remain relevant long after the conclusion of the work. In the long term, the research of CLIMATE-Arch will be indispensable for:

1. Producing accurate scientific accounts
2. Establishing standards to balance conservation and modernization

Project Leadership

The PI’s extensive multi-disciplinary scientific experience makes him eminently qualified to lead CLIMATE-Arch and to coordinate the team of post-docs, PhD students, and research assistants based at the Austrian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Social Anthropology (ISA).