Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, II (Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture)

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Summary: Perspectives
Review: The study of vernacular architecture involves consideration of all types of ordinary buildings as significant cultural artifacts. Over the past fifteen years, this field of inquiry has grown rapidly, incorporating scholarly methods and theories from disciplines such as art history, anthropolgy, folklore, social history and cultural geography. The twenty essays collected in Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture II represent the best and most recent scholarly work in the field. They deal with such significant issues as the forms of common buildings and how they are altered; diagnostic characteristics of building types, geographic and social contexts of buildings; influences of ethnicity, technology and fabric on structures; and methods for understanding and recording vernacular architecture. Articles that appear in this volume are selections based on quality and originality of their contributions from among papers presented during recent annual meetings of the Vernacular Architecture Forum. All other papers are abstracted in a special appendix. The Vernacular Architecture Forum itself was formed in 1980 to encourage the study and preservation of all aspects of common buildings and their context.