Between Traditionalism and Modernism: Approaches to a Vernacular Architecture

Author: Dennis Alan Mann
Year: 1985 (Journal of Architectural Education 39(2))
Source type: article
Raw file: raw/articles/mann-1985-traditionalism-modernism-vernacular.md

Summary

Mann argues that architectural education and practice, bound to the "ideology of modernism" — with its positivism, idealism, and rationalism — cannot adequately respond to traditional cultural patterns and the vernacular architecture of a pluralist, democratic society. Against this, he draws on John Kouwenhoven's "dynamic tradition" (vernacular arts "shaped empirically by ordinary people in unself-conscious and uninhibited response") and calls for architects to design "for the Joneses" — the ordinary dwellers, the neighborhood supermarket, the local mall, the bypass health center — rather than only for historically significant or fashionable projects.

Key Claims

• Modernist ideology fails the vernacular: "The ideology of modernism ... is too closely linked with the forces of patriarchy, idealism and rationalism to respond adequately to the traditional cultural patterns of society." Positivism distrusts subjective value; idealism ignores the "here and now" of human experience; rationalism's linear design methodology neglects reality.
• Vernacular as tradition: "the idea of a regional or vernacular architecture is closely tied to the ideas of tradition," "a handing down of knowledge," "endorsed by sentiment, love, family and community bonds." Kouwenhoven's "dynamic tradition" — vernacular arts "shaped empirically by ordinary people in unself-conscious and uninhibited response to the challenges of an unprecedented cultural environment" (the "twin forces of democracy and technology") — is more apt than Alexander's static myth-based tradition.
• Designing for ordinary people: the architect should be able to design "the Jones' house," the supermarket, the shopping mall, the health center — the everyday built environment — not just monuments; most students "were not prepared ... to design ... when it was not either historically significant or currently fashionable."
• Regional/democratic architecture: regional architecture responds to local specifics; a pluralist, consumer-oriented America needs architects who engage the "whole territory" of ordinary building rather than "moving out among the masses to educate their tastes."

Connections

Concepts: Everyday Architecture · Flat Ontology · Consumerism
Authors: Dennis Alan Mann
Debates: Genius vs. Bureaucracy
Related source notes: Making New Connections in Vernacular Architecture (Groth) · The Role of Consumerism in American Architecture (Chase)

Direct Quotes

"The ideology of modernism ... is too closely linked with the forces of patriarchy, idealism and rationalism to respond adequately to the traditional cultural patterns of society."

"Kouwenhoven's vernacular arts are 'objects shaped empirically by ordinary people in unself-conscious and uninhibited response to the challenges of an unprecedented cultural environment.'"

"[A]rchitects today are not in touch with the traditions that Kouwenhoven describes."

Open Questions

• Does Mann's "design for the Joneses / the supermarket" converge with a flat-ontological programme, or risk a populist ordinariness that abandons the critical function of architecture?