ABSTRACT
Although the history of vernacular architecture studies remains to be written, the close of the nineteenth century witnessed an increasing awareness in the west of the significance of buildings in the lives of indigenous peoples encountered in newly explored regions. A growing interest in ‘folk’ traditions also alerted some European investigators to the loss of traditional buildings through military conflicts, industrialization, expansion of the railroads and colonization. Early studies in, for instance, the pueblo architecture of Native American peoples of the south-west United States by Victor Mindeleff (1891) or the pioneering work on the Houses and House-life of the American Aborigines by Lewis H. Morgan (1881) are among the first serious examples of documentation. Admiration of the work of medieval craftsmen inspired William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement – but also had the negative effect of consigning the study of the vernacular to archaeology, history or nostalgic imitation.
