page_title: Vernacular architecture
section_title: Types and examples by region
hierarchical_section_title: Vernacular architecture / Types and examples by region
caption_attribution_description: العربية: شناشيل البصرة القديمة,1954مEnglish: Shanashil of the old part of Basra city in southern Iraq,1954
context_page_description: Vernacular architecture is architecture characterised by the use of local materials and knowledge, usually without the supervision of professional architects. Vernacular architecture represents the majority of buildings and settlements created in pre-industrial societies and includes a very wide range of buildings, building traditions, and methods of construction. Vernacular buildings are typically simple and practical, whether residential houses or built for other purposes.
  Although it encompassed 95% of the world's built environment in 1969, vernacular architecture tends to be overlooked in traditional histories of design. It is not one specific style, so it cannot be distilled into a series of easy-to-digest patterns, materials, or elements. Because of the usage of traditional building methods and local builders, vernacular buildings are considered part of a regional culture.
  Vernacular architecture can be contrasted against elite or polite architecture, which is characterized by stylistic elements of design intentionally incorporated for aesthetic purposes which go beyond a building's functional requirements.
context_section_description: Canadian
  Candian Railway style, Railway stations built in Canada in the 19th and early 20th Centuries were often simple wood structures that lacked decorative features. Some of these stations survive today but not as active railway stations.
  Iraq
  Desert castles – (in Arabic, known as q'sar) fortified palaces or castles built during the Umayyad period, the ruins of which are now scattered across the semi-arid regions of north-eastern Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Iraq. These often served as hunting lodges for noble families.
  Mudhif – a traditional building constructed entirely of reeds and common to the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq. Many were destroyed by Saddam Hussein, but since 2003, Arab communities have been returning to their traditional homes and way of life.
  Germany
  Gulf house
  Low German house
  Middle German house
  Old Frisian farmhouse
  Norway
  Scotland
  Bastle house – a multi-storey, fortified farmhouses with sophisticated security measures designed to provide defense against the frequent raiding parties along the Scottish border.
  Blackhouse – a traditional dry-stone walls building, roofed with thatch of turf, a flagstones floor and central hearth, designed to accommodate livestock and people, separated by a partition.
  Crofters cottage – a simple construction of stone walls filled with earth for insulation, a thatched or turf roof and stone slabs were set into the middle of the room for a peat fire which provided some form of central heating. An unusual croft house Brotchie's Steading, Dunnet was built with whale bone couples.
  Cruck house – a medieval structure designed to cope with shortages of long-span timber. The frame of the structure uses "siles" or "couples" (a type of fork) for the end walls. The walls do not support the roof, which is instead carried on the cruck frame. This type of building is common throughout England, Scotland and Wales, although only a few intact examples have survived.
  Shieling – a type of temporary hut (or a collection of huts) constructed of stone, sod and turf used as a dwelling during the Summer months when highlanders took their livestock to higher ground in search of new pasture.
  Tower house or peel tower – a medieval building, typically of stone, constructed by the aristocratic classes as a defensible residence.
  Turf house – e.g. East Ayrshire, Medieval turf house
  Spain
  Adobe house - mudbrick buildings found in Spain and Spanish colonies
  United States
  Creole architecture in the United States - a type of house or cottage common along the Gulf Coast and associated rivers, especially in southern Louisiana and Mississippi.
  Vernacular Architecture of Rural and Small-Town Missouri, by Howard Wight Marshall
  Earl A. Young (born March 31, 1889 – May 24, 1975) was an American architect, realtor and insurance agent. Over a span of 52 years, he designed and built 31 structures in Charlevoix, Michigan but was never a registered architect. He worked mostly in stone, using limestone, fieldstone, and boulders he found throughout Northern Michigan. The homes are commonly referred to as gnome homes, mushroom houses, or Hobbit houses. His door, window, roof and fireplace designs were very distinct because of his use of curved lines. Young's goal was to show that a small stone house could be as impressive as a castle. Young also helped make Charlevoix the busy, summer resort town that it is today.
  Ukraine
  Different regions in Ukraine have their own examples of vernacular architecture. For example, in the Carpathian Mountains and the surrounding foothills, wood and clay are the primary traditional building materials. Ukrainian architecture is preserved at The Museum of Folk Architecture and Way of Life of Central Naddnipryanshchyna located in Pereiaslav, Ukraine.
caption: Mashrabiya (or shanashol window) in the old city of Basra, 1954
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