ABSTRACT
The fifth chapter, Architecture and Building Design, departs from establishing a basic understanding of the context surrounding heritage preservation and sustainable design to content that addresses how to approach an ethic and practice that integrates cultural and natural resource conservation. This chapter reinforces the notion that at all buildings and landscapes, taking a vernacular studies approach as opposed to a traditional art or architectural history approach, are integral to a sustainable and meaningful built environment. This emphasis defines architecture in its broadest scope, linking everyday buildings as well as the canon of great works of architecture (Oliver 2000). The concept of building culture, from scholar Howard Davis, buttresses the developing understanding that all the building stock, and traditions employed to make buildings, are considered part of ‘architecture’ and are discussed through the work. Using the structure of performance roles as a way to understand architecture, the history of architectural development and building design over time is examined in the chapter. This performance role approach to looking at architectural history describes the production of buildings as a series of interventions made by an array of actors (architects, builders, craftsmen and repairmen, manufacturers and even building inspectors and code writers). It does not focus only on high style architecture nor the works of famous architects and, importantly, the patrons or architects of a specific building are not the only actors attributed with creating the buildings. Underpinning the discussion of architectural design over time is the trajectory of buildings serving a greater number of performance roles, and more complex performance roles through time. The frequent compatibility between traditional methods of building and passive or energy efficient architectural features closes the chapter and references back, quite directly, to the inherent compatibility of the two fields under discussion.
