Week 9. Learning from Vernacular Traditions?

: Third
World Development and Eco-cultural Sustainability Reading Response
Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973, pp. 1-18 & 25-54.
Pyla, Panayiota I. "Hassan Fathy Revisited: Postwar Discourses on
Science, Development, and Verncular Architecture." Journal of
Architectural Education 60, no. 3 (2007): 28-39.
By Felicia Goh Xiu Xian (A0100723Y)
Hassan Fathys work on Architecture for the Poor: An experiment in Rural Egypt
highlights the importance of incorporating traditional local methods and
materials for building in modern times. He shows it in his work in Gourna, where
Fathy designed a prototype for mass housing there. Pylas article praises Fathys
contribution on vernacular architecture, an attempt to justify a diverse variety
of local knowledge systems.
Both articles got me thinking, should one adopt vernacular traditions in design as
is or should they be challenged and have contextualised improvements made
prior to their implementation?
In Pylas article, the author showcased a few of Fathys plans, one of which
caught my interest: Fathys study on the ventilation within the badgir. He realised
that the traditional badgir had poor ventilation due to the small outlet and thus
he suggested an enlargement of the badgir to improve and facilitate the airflow.
A larger outlet, together with a smaller inlet, will allow the air to rush from one
end to another, providing a wind current and thus proper ventilation to the
building. This example shows how vernacular traditional knowledge, even though
how tried and tested (over time) they might be, should be challenged and
contested using modern knowledge for improvement.
Singapore is no stranger to ventilation techniques. With our humid, tropical
climate, Singapore needs to adapt using natural ventilation systems to increase
the efficiency of the buildings cooling systems. For example, in HDB apartments
(Singapores take on mass housing), the living room window strategically aligns
with the kitchen window providing cross-ventilation. Cross-ventilation is evident
in many tropical vernacular buildings as well.
In a macro-scale of things however, the arrangement of the HDB blocks poses a
problem for the cross-ventilation to work as efficiently as it should. Due to the
density of Singapores population, these blocks are arranged back-to-back,
shielding the adjacent blocks from the wind. This defeats the purpose of the
placements of windows mentioned previously. Perhaps to counter this problem,
Singapore could look at town plans with more insight, strategically arrange HDB
blocks in such a way where air flow is not as restricted.
The application of traditional local knowledge on building design should be taken
more seriously, especially in the modern times. Because this local knowledge,
having passed down through generations, has been proven that it is feasible for
the specific location and corresponding climate. However, with improved

technology, it is not to be taken for granted that all aspects of it is still relevant in
the present. Hence vernacular architectural methods has to be constantly
contested and challenged.