Building Traditions

List by author
List by title
List all abstracts

Abstracts

(Building Traditions Introductory Essay)
An Introduction to Architecture + Building Traditions: lessons from ethno–architects

Paul Memmott, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, The University of Queensland

This paper offers an introduction and overview of the papers presented to the ADDITIONS conference under the theme ‘Architecture + Building Traditions’. These papers are specifically oriented toward scholars of Pacific rim Indigenous cultures and their vernacular building traditions, in order that a debate might arise regarding the human values of these traditions and what they represent by way of contrast to Western constructs of architecture. A general sub-theme running through this collection of papers is how a theoretical framework of ‘architecture’ might be configured, which would serve as a cross-cultural tool to understanding the nature of constructed and composed environments used as human habitats across all cultural contexts. An extension of this question would be why the Western concept of ‘architecture’ has so far not achieved such a unifying position, at times excluding non-Western and Indigenous building traditions. This new construct of architecture cannot be dominated by period aesthetics or popular Eurocentric philosophies, but must be useful for both theoretical and practical application to the settlements of the non-European and Indigenous cultures of the world, as well as to Western environments.

Between the Georgina and the Great Western Railway: The Transformation and Maintenance of Aboriginal Architecture in North-West Queensland

Stephen Long, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, School of Geography, Planning and Architecture, The University of Queensland

In 1897 the English ethnographer Walter Roth observed a dramatic transformation in the construction of the cold weather domes of Aboriginal groups of the Georgina River, north-west Queensland. Roth believed these changes were influenced by the acquisition of new materials and items such as western clothing and blankets. In the 1970s the anthropologist and architect Paul Memmott made observations of the town camps of Aboriginal people who had been displaced from the Georgina River to the railhead at Dajarra. Memmott was concerned with moves by authorities to destroy this self-constructed camp which was characterised by timber and tin humpies and externally orientated domiciliary behaviour. Whereas Roth was concerned with changes to the physical properties of a building type, Memmott was concerned with a potential loss of freedom to define and maintain social environments and patterns of domiciliary behaviour. This latter concern emerged amongst a small number of architects and anthropologists working in the area of Aboriginal housing in the 1970s including Heppell and Wigley of the RAIA’s Aboriginal Housing Panel.

Drawing on case study material from fieldwork with the Dajarra Aboriginal community of north-west Queensland, the current author’s paper examines recent examples of the transformation and maintenance of Aboriginal Architecture. The paper commences with an example of how a part of the broader Aboriginal environment can be temporarily transformed into an ‘architectural environment’. The contemporary maintenance of a number of architectural types described by Roth are examined. Lastly, the transformation of non-Aboriginal built environments into Aboriginal environments (or Aboriginal architecture) and the maintenance of these environments is explored.

Bodybuilding

Lesley McFadyen, School of Humanities and Sciences, University of Wales

This paper is concerned with construction work. More specifically, it is concerned with understanding the earlier neolithic 'long cairns' of south-west Britain as areas of construction, that is as construction sites. These areas of construction have endlessly been presented by archaeologists as buildings, as complete flawlessly enclosed façaded architectures. Such constructional histories have collapsed centuries of evidence for labour in these areas into one exclusive snapshot of a 'monument' in use as a tomb for the dead. In this paper, I will attempt to question which materials are considered as 'architectural', and what kinds of evidence for labour within these areas of construction are considered as 'architectural'. I have come to understand the efforts of these labours more in terms of entwined assemblages: where materials that were intimately caught up in people's identities, material culture, were knitted into these areas of construction; where people attempted to engage with past materialities and create material histories of their own; where human bodies were literally incorporated into these assemblages of things while construction work was actively taking place. It is these dynamics that our archaeological and architectural histories should be focusing on.

Five types of Traditional Melanesian Architecture of Papua New Guinea

Martin Fowler, University of Melbourne

From outside the palisade I had seen the great peaked top of the sac-sac temple, the house-tamberan, and from the garamut house more of it could be seen over the tops of the other houses, and even from down in the dip it was still there, overtopping everything, three times the height of the tallest coconut palm. It was hooded at the top and the sides projected forward of the leaning facade, to shield from the weather its still-indistinct design of colours.

— Colin Simpson, Plumes and Arrows: Inside New Guinea, Sydney, 1962 p.319

Valued by anthropology and other disciplines, Others’ traditional architectures have been marginalised, or ignored by Architecture. A few exceptions are briefly examined, giving contextual balance and introducing the approach that defines the Five Types this paper presents.

Architecture's practices of exclusion inform the context against which the concluding section asserts a need for Architecture to try harder to appreciate and value Others' cultural productions. Great cross-cultural richness of universal human heritage value is embedded in them. The Fives Types foreshadow an extensive project, involving this typology as a device to reveal clearer pictures of the worth of these Others' architectures.

Looking at Maori Architecture

Bill McKay, Unitec, Auckland

This paper discusses the perception of “Maori architecture” as it has been seen in the mainstream narrative of New Zealand architectural history. It offers a critical overview of buildings by Maori from the perspective of their portrayal in New Zealand architectural histories. It is not so much about the buildings themselves, but rather the processes of selection and representation and how this has reflected the political and cultural concerns of the times.

The development of the Whare Nui is discussed as the product of interaction with Pakeha culture and an assertive response to the forces of 19th century settlement, then in the way it was “acquired” and stereotyped as the sole form of Maori architectural expression by Pakeha museums and histories.
This paper discusses other significant buildings that are not widely known and do not figure in mainstream architectural histories, then elucidates the political and theoretical reasons for the marginalising of these buildings. These works have often appropriated pakeha forms, but the political aims of these movements make it clear that this is not a process of assimilation - indeed it is the assertive political nature of these movements that has caused their art forms to be marginalised in mainstream histories.

In addition the lack of “purity”, the mixing of Pakeha and Maori motifs by Maori (as opposed to Pakeha), has not been viewed as a desirable means to a new and distinctly New Zealand or bi-cultural expression, but rather has been marginalised as “folk art”. These art forms have often been considered illegitimate, not properly Maori, not a Pakeha’s idea of what constitutes Maori art, but nevertheless it is what Maori have been doing for much of the last 150 years.

Notes on Dyirbalngan dwellings: Ethno-architecture in the rainforests of northeastern Queensland

Tim O’Rourke, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, The University of Queensland

The late nineteenth century European invasion of the wet tropical region in north Queensland exploited the regional network of Aboriginal pathways and rainforest clearings to begin the agrarian transformation of the indigenous cultural landscape. The explorer pioneers reported on native villages of well-thatched dwellings, the novelty of these settlements drawing comment and illustration in the Sydney press. Photographers also captured images of a distinctive ethno-architecture common to the rainforest Aboriginal cultures. This research project uses these archival data sources, ethnographic records, and fieldwork with Dyirbal people of the Tully River to reconstruct the rainforest built environment at the time of contact. A number of elder Dyirbalngan have direct experience of customary camps, and their memories augment, inform and contradict the archival data. The project aims to document Dyirbalngan building technologies, dwelling types and settlement patterns. It also examines the relationship of the built environment to the tropical ecology of the region.

Drawing on three sources of data, this paper describes the largest dwelling type in the Dyirbalngan repertoire, the yabun. Built to accommodate extended families up to 30 people in number, the relative size and permanence of yabun adds to the evidence on the sedentary nature of Aboriginal settlements in resource rich environments. The documentation of the traditional Dyirbalngan camps contributes to the record of Aboriginal ethno-architectures across the continent and the revision of the history of vernacular architecture in Australia.

Pukekaraka: a study in architecture and Whakapapa

Ellen Andersen

A common theme that runs through discussions on developments in Maori architectural history is the concept of whakapapa. Often referred to simply as genealogy, whakapapa is the tracing of lineage, the recollection of history and the inclusion of self or present into layers of a continuum. We are able to examine architectural tradition using this model, to help elucidate the transformations and developments present in a country’s architectural heritage. To provide a more specific investigation into the changes seen in Maori building after European contact, an examination of a particular site can help articulate what was happening around many parts of the country at the same time. New Zealand’s North Island town of Otaki is home to the Maori tribal settlement of Pukekaraka. This 19-acre block was settled in the 1820’s by the sub-tribe Ngati Kapumanawawhiti, and has undergone a building programme that extends over 150 years. The architecture of the settlement is evidence of its own heritage, through Maori, French and Pakeha inhabitation and interaction. This site embodies many prominent issues in the case of Maori architecture, the most specific of these - its progress, evolution and implications within a changing society.

Pacific Building: the construction of tradition

Mike Austin, School of Architecture, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland

Architecture is usually taken to be the addition to building traditions, both in time (building before architecture) and in practice (architecture as decoration), but we now know that things are not that simple. The notion that primitive architecture had no architects might derive from the 1964 exhibition Architecture without Architects by Bernard Rudofsky. If architects are those who represent building, then Rudofsky is the architect of primitive architecture and might be credited with initiating books about ‘non -pedigreed’ architecture by, Fraser, Guidoni, Rapoport and Oliver. Somehow there is supposed to be some kind of shared identity between primitive architectures, but this identity is defined in opposition to the metropolitan and civilised with which it is contrasted. The traditional however is not fixed, it is also endlessly subject to additions so that every representation of tradition is a construction of tradition. Today this is for the purpose of tourism where architecture is a significant commodity. One purpose of this paper (and in general the study of other architectures) might be to make strange Western architectural practices. Differences from these practices will be discussed, using examples from the architecture of the Island Pacific.

Recognising Aboriginal Architecture from Northeast Arnhem Land: The ‘ancestral aesthetic’ in Yolngu dwellings and ceremonial structures

Shaneen Fantin, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, University of Queensland

The dwellings and ceremonial structures of the Yolngu people in northeast Arnhem Land contain ancestral representations which have anthropomorphic and/or animal qualities. Although these representations and qualities have been recorded by anthropologists and an environmental psychologist, there has been little investigation undertaken into the relationship between Yolngu ancestral histories and vernacular architecture. The paper aims to extend this research by presenting the ‘ancestral aesthetic’ qualities of a selection of Yolngu dwellings, structures, and places based on the meanings of their names in various Yolngu languages, their presence in Yolngu cosmogony, and their relationship to Yolngu social identity as enacted through ceremony.

First I provide an outline of the Yolngu worldview and their living patterns as recorded by explorers and anthropologists prior to 1935. This creates a background for the introduction of the Yolngu architectural repertoire, a typology of Yolngu dwellings and structures I have derived from the literature and fieldwork. The religious and social symbolism inherent in one structure from the Yolngu architectural repertoire is demonstrated through an analysis of its presence in ancestral histories and ceremony. This is followed by an exploration of how Aboriginal religious architecture is created through the process of ceremony. I argue that the union of song, dance, ground sculptures, ceremonial artefacts, and shelters, make places which are imbued with ancestral power and constitute a temporary religious architecture.

Tomb Architecture of Dynastic China: old and new questions

Qinghua Guo, The University of Melbourne

In China, a great number of tombs have survived from great antiquity, especially since the Han dynasties (206 BC - AD 220). This fact stands in stark contrast to the architecture: none of the ancient Chinese architecture built before the Tang (AD 618-907) exists today. While much care and scholarly effort has been devoted to the interpretation of architecture, the tombs themselves have not received enough study and scrutiny. This paper studies the underground chambers of the tomb architecture. The purpose of the study is to identify the structural types, to trace their development and to search for reasons underlying such development.

Uneven Boundaries that do not Flatten Easily

Albert L. Refiti, School of Art and Design, Auckland University of Technology

This paper is an exploration of cross-cultural boundaries in Pacific church architecture in Polynesia and New Zealand. Early churches were adaptations of oblong fale or house with solid coral walls closing off the sides, forming a long processional space. They were sited mostly in prominent spot in villages, raised up high on stone and concrete platforms, which often dwarfed the surrounding chiefs’ meeting houses. Lime washed in white made the buildings glare brightly in the tropical sun.

An interesting development with these was the way the Polynesians imagined them to be the ideal version of the height of European spirituality, of an architecture that represented the utopia of a heavenly paradise in the eyes of a Euro-centric God. These buildings were, and still are, romantic projections by Pacific people of what a European paradise might be — fantasy creations caught in the absurd space of expectation. These (mis)representations are at the heart of cross-cultural exchanges and imaginings in this part of the world.

Now imagine another situation where these architectural imaginings are re-transplanted to other locations, as is the case in the suburbs of Mangere, Otara and Newtown in New Zealand. Somehow a double movement of cross-cultural exchanges starts to blur and change the boundaries of what a Pacific culture might be in these places. Once the product of a (mis)representation of a Euro-Christian ideal, the buildings have become the very objects a Pacific culture becomes identified with in New Zealand.

Western ‘Architectural’ Ideology and its Impact on the Traditional Building Practices of the Maya Peoples of Guatemala and Southern Mexico

James Davidson, Department of Architect, The University of Queensland

Chozas, or traditional Maya dwellings, in contemporary Guatemala and southern Mexico signify, to Maya and non-Maya alike, poverty and depression. They also stand as historical reminders to a time past but not forgotten. They embody traditional cultural knowledge related to belief, behaviours and products of Maya culture and are intimately linked to the land, materials and climate of the region. Research has also linked the Maya house to mythological beliefs regarding humankind’s relationship to the universe. The current author’s research has shown that no matter how much change ‘seems’ to have occurred in the way people construct their environment, the behaviour associated with any type of dwelling still has its basis in the traditional.

The question is, can ‘traditional’ building practices synthesise with non-traditional methods of construction in enabling Western practitioners to design culturally appropriate small-scale public housing in non-Western and Indigenous built environments? This paper responds by comparing the housing traditions of the Maya peoples of Guatemala and southern Mexico to the non-traditional housing provided by a Western change agency within the region. The purpose is to illustrate the negative influence that such ‘Western-directed’ change is having on the traditional housing of the region. The significance of this analysis is to establish ways in which it is possible to synthesise the traditional and non-traditional for culturally appropriate housing programs in Guatemala and southern Mexico – establishing ways in which Western understanding ‘could’ be relevant.

The Whare on Exhibition

Deidre Brown, School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch

Since the 1867 confiscation and removal of the Te Hau-ki-Turanga meeting house from its turangawaewae (place of belonging) in Turanga to the Colonial Museum in Wellington Maori architecture has been on exhibition. Indeed, no museum-held Maori collection has been considered complete without its own whare whakairo (decorated meeting house) and pataka (decorated storehouse). It is only in the last thirty years that museums have taken into account Maori views on the display of these taonga (cultural treasures) the last decade being witness to a few instances of repatriation. These recent developments have also been accompanied by a related interest, on the part of contemporary Maori artists and architects, in making Maori architecture specifically for the gallery setting. This paper will examine the history of exhibited Maori architecture with specific reference to the author's mostly unpublished research on museum collections and recent curatorial whare (house) building projects undertaken by herself (Hiko! 1999, Techno Maori 2001, Whare 2002) and others (Purangiaho 2001, etc.) in New Zealand art galleries.

The work created specifically for exhibition is not related to a specific marae, or a concept of turangawaewae, as it is a reality of life that many Maori must try to make a transportable Maori space, or spaces, for themselves within urbanised, transient, or sometimes globalised contexts. These Maori live in cities, they travel regularly, and some of them live permanently overseas. Their sense of identity is different to that of their grandparents and great-grandparents and their art speaks of a Maori world, as Darcy Nicholas puts it, that is not in the process of changing, but has already changed. For them, what might be described as Maori architectural arts, such as kowhaiwhai and tukutuku, and even electronic whare, have become portable emblems of identity which can be hung-up, set-up, worn or plugged-in to indicate Maori space. The transient nature of contemporary exhibited Maori architecture, its transformation through Maori and non-Maori viewing protocols and processes, and its relationship to earlier museum-held and customarily-sited Maori buildings will be original subjects of discussion.

top