dr Peter Fister
The Decline and Re-establishment of Vernacular Architecture – An Analysis
The paper compares the role of vernacular architecture at the beginning of a new millennium and after a decade of Alps-Adria international conferences on vernacular architecture. Two polar opposites can be observed, i.e. the commercial constructions of prefabricated parts, buildings and even areas which have replaced the inventivness and creativity of former periods, and the awareness of the significance of vernacular architecture as space-identity creator in terms of landscape, symbolic and semantic feeling of belonging to a nation and other communities, experience peculiarities and lifestyle, and as modifier of space-planning in terms of its aims and methods. Projects aiming at single-building protection have developed into protection policy encompassing not only the preservation of significant architectural works but also examples of vernacular architecture.
Alps-Adria international conferences have played a significant part in the above-mentioned shift of development. Their impact is less noticeable in certain parts of the Alps-Adria region, yet the analysis shows that they have made a significant impact on expertise in a larger, maybe even global, area.