Authenticity and Vernacular Architecture
Authenticity and Vernacular Architecture
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
INTERAMERICAN SYMPOSIUM ON AUTHENTICITY
IN THE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, USA MARCH, 1996
ICOMOS Guatemala
Authenticity and Vernacular Architecture
Blanca Niño Norton
Presidente, ICOMOS Guatemala
The recognition of Vernacular Architecture as part of the cultural heritage has increased
worldwide in the last years. There is great interest for the conservation and protection of
Vernacular Architecture, but it is not possible to protect it without the understanding of the
qualities that make these exposed and fragile constructions our cultural heritage.
Universally, Vernacular Architecture is understood as how a community answers to its cultural,
physical and economic environment. Architecture that evolves in function of cultural, social,
economical and material changes; an architecture in which the structures, the forms, the
building materials are determined by the climate, the geology, the geography, the economics
and the local culture.
Some Vernacular Architecture characteristics are: local labor, craftsmanship, local materials,
application of non-professional knowledge based on experience, capacity of adaptation to
cultural and environmental changes.
The diversity of cultural expressions that are the essence of the Vernacular Architecture does
not make the evaluation of its authenticity an easy matter. The Vernacular Architecture does
not follow a unique typology but represents the expression of each community. It will be
impossible to understand hand made architecture without knowing the cultural roots of the
creating hands. We can not study the monument in an isolated way, nor restore it or conserve
it. The authenticity in Vernacular Architecture has an abstract value for it is the sensibility and
simplicity of a group that creates and transforms the space to develop its daily life.
The authenticity in Vernacular Architecture not only refers to the meaning of original or
genuine, but also the meaning of artistic creativity of forms and volumes while defining a space.
It refers to the honesty of being what it is, without trying to represent something it is not.
UNITED STATES NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON MONUMENTS AND SITES
COMITÉ NATIONAL DES ETATS UNIS DU CONSEIL INTERNATIONAL DES MONUMENTS ET DES SITES
