Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Sophie Elpers
(Meertens Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
Marcel Vellinga (Oxford Brookes University)
- Location:
- A126
Short Abstract:
The panel explores symbolism in and of vernacular architecture. It welcomes papers that are based on ethnological fieldwork focusing on the relation between material culture and intangible aspects, as well as papers bringing up new theoretical ideas about symbolism in vernacular architecture.
Long Abstract:
The panel explores symbolism in vernacular architecture and vernacular architecture as symbol. It addresses the vast spectrum of symbolic items: from inscriptions and symbolic motifs/decorations on buildings in two- or three-dimensional forms, to symbolism present in the organization of the rooms and the spatial orientation of the architecture; from architecture or architectural elements which invite the engagement of its user in a ritual process, to whole buildings and building traditions which themselves can be understood as complex symbols.
The aim of the panel is to understand the symbols in their sociocultural context and to analyze how they are created, perceived and used (ritually). Therefore, papers based on ethnological fieldwork focusing on the relation between material culture and its intangible aspects are welcome. Papers may investigate contemporary as well as historic vernacular architecture (in the broad sense) in the context of its dynamic use and meaning in the present and the past. The panel is also open for papers bringing up new theoretical ideas about symbolism in vernacular architecture, e.g., about the relation between the connotation and denotation of architecture (Umberto Eco).
Accepted papers:
Session 1Dagmar Hänel (LVR-Institut for regional studies) Carsten Vorwig (LVR-Freilichtmuseum Kommern)
Paper short abstract:
Architecture and spatial orders of refugees accommodation are symbols for discourses and practices. Regarding this special kind of architecture as vernacular clarify that there is a tradition in forms and material culture as well as in the intangible elements in cultural dealing with strangers.
Paper long abstract:
The architecture of refugee accommodations symbolizes discourses on migration and integration. Looking at this special kind of vernacular architecture in Germany in past and present, the paper will show different traditions in material culture and in its intangible elements when dealing with refugees.
After the Second World War Germany was faced not only with destroyed cities and infrastructures, but also with millions of displaced persons. Special forms for temporary accommodation for refugees were established: next to the possibility to be quartered camps and nissen huts were built. The architecture was functional and uniform; the objective was to accommodate a large amount of people in a short time for as little money as possible.
This is still the leading idea of most of the European countries when they have to deal with refugees, especially in times of global crises, when numbers of refugees are increasing. In the 1990s lots of municipalities in Germany decided to place mobile houses for the accommodation of refugees. Planned for short-time use, lots of them are still occupied by people applying for asylum.
The mobile homes can be regarded as materializations of the discourse on asylum and the social interaction with refugees. On the one hand, the architecture and its interior can symbolize practices of 'othering' as well as excluding strangeness by the refugee-hosting countries. On the other hand they can also symbolize dwelling practices and life styles of the refugees themselves. Our research examines the history of this symbolism from 1945 to 2015.
Ólafur Rastrick (University of Iceland)
Paper short abstract:
Exploring the shifting meaning making processes grounded in the vernacular architecture of Reykjavik’s city center the paper problematizes the conflicting and multilayered symbolism of the buildings in the local and national narrative.
Paper long abstract:
Central Reykjavik includes an assortment of timber cottages dating from late 19th and early 20th century. Urbanism being a modern phenomenon in Iceland these buildings form the oldest part of the country's capital. As distinguishing features of the urban space these houses have played an important role in local and national identity politics taking on a variety of meanings and enjoying alternating symbolic status from being depicted as dispensable relics to functioning as imperative for national identity and distinction. Growing interest in the buildings as cultural heritage has fostered some interesting interventions. In an attempt to save the buildings from owners and real-estate prospectors set on replacing them with bigger and more profitable properties a number of the buildings have been relocated within the confines of the city center complicating or even obscuring their earlier function as symbols and landmarks. In addition new houses have been built replicating or citing architectural features of houses that have disappeared from the cityscape by way of fire or demolition. The paper outlines the shifting meaning invested in the buildings vacillating between demonstrating absence of built local heritage to constituting distinctive Icelandic heritage worthy of world heritage listing. Drawing on both historical sources and ethnological survey material designed to chart the meaning making processes associated with these houses (in situ, relocated or replicas) the objective of the study is to reveal the conflicting and multilayered symbolism invested in the buildings and thus scrutinize the intangible qualities of the built environment.
Michael Schimek (Museumsdorf Cloppenburg - Lowersaxon Open-air Museum)
Paper short abstract:
Based on interviews with building owners, the paper discusses the question to which extend the "Fehnhaus", a new created dwelling house that refers to a traditional farmhouse in the moor areas of Lower Saxony, becomes a symbol for a special form of dwelling, a particular region or a certain milieu.
Paper long abstract:
Since several years buildings in Northern Germany are influenced by the style of historism again: In addition to lattice windows and edge rafters certain brick wallings, columns and gables are decorating more and more buildings in cities and the countryside. In between this supraregional trend a new building pattern was created in Northwest-Lower Saxony: the "Fehnhaus" (fen house). It ties up to the traditional building pattern of the "Gulfhaus", a farmhouse which includes dwelling, barn and stable beneath one roof and that was built until the 1960s in East Frisia and the neighbouring districts of Emsland and Oldenburg. Since then modern patterns, developed by engineers, are dominating rural building.
However, during the 1990s the Gulfhaus has been re-introduced as a special form of dwelling building. This form orientates itself by a small version of Gulfhaus which was common between 1800 and 1950 in the fen settlements in the moor areas. The modern Fehnhaus refers only to the outside appearance of the Gulfhaus but not to its construction or use.
Why do house builders build houses with a form rather inconvenient for dwelling purposes? Why do they accept additional work and expenses in order to realize their Fehnhaus? And which meaning has their Fehnhaus to them?
The paper tries to answer these questions refering to interviews with the building owners. It will discuss to which extend the Fehnhaus becomes a symbol for a special form of dwelling, a particular region or a certain milieu.
Sophie Elpers (Meertens Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
Paper short abstract:
The Netherlands have experienced an emergence of neo-nationalism in the past few years. What is felt as 'typical' or 'authentic' Dutch is gaining new prominence in all aspects of life. The paper examines the role of rural architecture as national symbol in this process.
Paper long abstract:
The Netherlands have experienced an emergence of neo-nationalism in the past few years. What is felt as 'typical' or 'authentic' Dutch is gaining new prominence in all aspects of life. The paper focusses on the role of rural architecture in this process.
Whilst some years ago the modern and postmodern urban architecture of the Netherlands was emphasized as symbol of 'Dutchness', it now seems to be more the rural vernacular architecture that is perceived as 'typically' Dutch. The paper looks at the images of rural architecture in the context of the construction and public distribution of national symbols by different actors (media, companies, musea). It reveals which qualities rural architecture needs to function as national symbol in the Netherlands and how this relates to people's emotions of nostalgia and a desire for traditional culture.
Furthermore, the paper examines the influences of the images of rural architecture on the architecture itself, including corresponding heritage politics as well as everyday life in and with rural architecture.
Catriona Mackie (University College Isle of Man)
Paper short abstract:
Through a study of the vernacular houses of the Isle of Lewis, this paper examines the role of social status in vernacular architecture, and the way in which status may be symbolised and expressed in construction techniques, architectural features, and furnishings.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the role of social status in vernacular architecture, and the way in which status can be symbolised and expressed in construction techniques, architectural features, and furnishings. By exploring the different ways in which status can be displayed in domestic environments, it also asks how we might determine the extent to which particular architectural features have symbolic, as well as functional, value.
The research focuses on the vernacular houses of the Isle of Lewis, the most northerly of the Scottish Hebridean islands, during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the early 19th century, houses in rural Lewis were built by the tenants themselves, using locally available materials such as stone, turf, and thatch. The houses were byre-dwellings, comprising housing for both humans and cattle under the same roof. Ancillary units, such as barns and porches, were often appended to the house and were accessible from within it. Developments during the course of the 19th and 20th centuries saw increased segregation of space within the Lewis house, the introduction of new housing features such as chimneys and windows, and more extensive use of furnishings and interior decoration.
This paper explores the increasing significance of social status within 19th and 20th century Lewis tenant society, and the impact this had on vernacular housing on the island. Ultimately, status is shown to have had a significant effect on the development of the Lewis house, both in its construction and in the way in which interior space was partitioned and used.
Vytautas Tumėnas (Lithuanian Institute of History)
Paper short abstract:
The apotropaic symbolism of the roof ridge adornments in Lithuania will be analyzed by comparing them with folklore and folk art data and other comparative material. The paper aims to reveal the semiotic interconnectivity of different elements of local culture with mythological archetypes.
Paper long abstract:
The double images of horses, horns and birds in the pole of the Lithuanian vernacular roof ridge decorations 'lėkiai' are quite similar to the elements of 'krikštai', wooden cemetery monuments in West Lithuania. Similar images are also present in traditional textile (band) decorations called 'žirgeliai' (horses) and in folklore motifs.
The investigation in the symbolism of Lithuanian vernacular decorations is based on an analysis of various narrative and visual mythical-poetical images. It combines local ethnographic, folkloristic and linguistic data as well as comparative material from other regions. The paper aims to reveal the semiotic interconnectivity of different aspects of traditional culture and their links with regional and universal mythological archetypes. It unfolds the codic and intertextual aspects of this kind of metaphoric language which embraced most aspects of the human environment and associated daily life with the ideal world. The paper explains the meaning of these symbols as apotropaic manifestations of the Twin and World Tree mythology.
Patricia Alkhoven (Meertens Institute (KNAW))
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I will explore several digital strategies to gain insight how ideas about vernacular architecture developed during the reconstruction period after the Worls War II in the Netherlands based on visual evidence.
Paper long abstract:
This paper gains insight in digital strategies for comparing floor plans of vernacular architecture. It focuses on the automatic identification and categorization of floor plans of a case study based on the archive of the "Bureau Wederopbouw Boerderijen" (Office for Farm Reconstruction, 1940-1955) with data of 7700 Dutch farmhouses that were destroyed during World War II and were rebuilt - reconstructed or redeveloped in a new form - between 1940 and 1955. A test-set was digitized of about 1000 drawings (floor plans of new farmhouses, sketches of destroyed farmhouses) to examine
how ideas about vernacular architecture developed during the reconstruction period based on visual evidence.
In this paper I will explore several strategies - from forensics to pattern recognition and visualization methods - to find out more about their usefulness in this specific research question as well as in art- and architectural history in general to answer questions about change, distribution, typology, genre, etc.
Using these techniques, the floor plans of the farmhouse need to be divided into different symbols that can then be recognized by the software concerned.