Background

The International Vernacular Architecture Unit aims to advance recognition and understanding of the meaning and importance of vernacular architecture traditions worldwide. Hosting the unique Paul Oliver Vernacular Architecture Library (POVAL) and providing a base for interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and comparative research, it promotes projects that extend the geographic, thematic and methodological scope of the field, emphasising the way in which vernacular traditions are of fundamental importance to the sustainable development of the world's built environment.

Research expertise

• Interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and comparative study of vernacular architecture traditions all around the world
• Transmission of indigenous, traditional and vernacular skills, expertise and knowledge


Yazd, Iran
Central courtyard in an earth building
Photograph: Ahmadreza Foruzanmehr

• Conservation, regeneration and sustainability of the vernacular building heritage worldwide
• Historic towns, tourism and heritage management
• Thermal comfort in vernacular architecture
• Cultural geography and mapping of vernacular architecture traditions
• Design in a vernacular context

Recent/Current research activity

• Atlas of Vernacular Architecture of the World, edited by Paul Oliver and Marcel Vellinga. The first cartographic reference work on vernacular architecture in the world, to complement the Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World (funded by the AHRC)
• Provision of thermal comfort in vernacular passively-cooled houses in the hot, dry climates of Iran
• Community participation and regeneration in Akcicek village, northern Cyprus
• Temper (training, education, management and prehistory in the Mediterranean) (Funded by the EU)

Street in Nicosia, Cyprus
Photograph: Marcel Vellinga

Training opportunities

• MA/PGDip programme International Architectural Regeneration and Development (IARD)
• The IVAU is a centre for PhD studies. It normally has around 6-8 EU and international PhD students

Selected recent/current research activity

• Foruzanmehr, A. and Vellinga, M. (2011). Vernacular architecture: questions of comfort and practicability. Building Research & Information 39 (3), 274-285.
• Vellinga, M. (2010) Marked off: On taboos in architecture. PERSPECTA: The Yale Architectural Journal, 43: 4-13.
• Foruzanmehr, A. (2009) Reconsidering vernacular earth buildings: New approaches for integrating traditional passive-cooling systems into modern buildings in warm-dry climates. In: MEDITERA 2009. Proceedings of a conference on Mediterranean Earth Architecture. Italy
• Foruzanmehr, A. and Nicol, F. (2008) Towards new approaches for integrating vernacular passive-cooling systems into modern buildings in warm-dry climates of Iran. In: Proceedings of conference: Air Conditioning and the Low Carbon Cooling Challenge, Windsor, London: the Network for Comfort and Energy Use in Buildings. Available at: http://nceub.commoncense.info/uploads//W2008_64Foruzanmehr.pdf.
• Vellinga, M., Oliver, P. and Bridge, A., (2007) Atlas of Vernacular Architecture of the World. London and New York, Taylor and Francis.
• Orbasli, A. (2007) Architectural Conservation. Oxford, Blackwell.
• Vellinga, M. (2007) Anthropology and the Materiality of Architecture. American Ethnologist, 34 (4), pp 756 766.
• Oliver, P. (2006) Built to meet needs: cultural issues in vernacular architecture. Architectural Press, Elsevier.

A Malay Minangkabau house
Negri Sembilan, Malaysia
Photograph: Paul Oliver

External links

• With international organisations involved in the field of vernacular architecture studies, such as the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE), the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU), the Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF), RehabiMed and ICOMOS - UK
• With professionals and academics in universities all around the world, including The Aboriginal Environments Research Centre at the University of Queensland (Australia), Leiden University (Netherlands), Polytechnic University of Valencia, School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS) Spain, ESG/Escola Superior Gallaecia (Portugal).