Abitare Research Reviews Changing means adapting
Sabla: The Palm Leaf Shelters. Costruzione con le foglie di palma. Emirati Arabi Uniti. (Foto Sandra Piesik)
Changing means adapting
Sara Banti
In her book devoted to the traditional architecture of different climate zones the architect and researcher Sandra Piesik asserts the need for a new holistic and multidisciplinary approach that is able to integrate the advantages of modernity with the solutions developed by humanity over millennia. Only in this way can we meet the challenges posed by nature
The most incisive words on the importance of sticking to the commitments made with regard to climate change were pronounced by Ban Ki-moon: "There is no Plan B because there is no planet B." The former secretary-general of the United Nations was referring – as Plan A – to the agreement reached at the conference on climate change held in 2015, aimed at altering the course which is taking us rapidly into the depths of the Anthropocene, the epoch marked by the negative impact of humanity on nature. In Paris the 195 countries present at the meeting drew up a road map that as well as imposing restrictions on the release of CO2 and encouraging the shift to alternative sources of energy, again proposed adapting indigenous building methods, a real treasure house of discoveries and inventions made over thousands of years of human history, to today's needs.
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The architect Sandra Piesik has examined and analysed this precious heritage in a beautiful book, published last October by Thames & Hudson and realized with the collaboration of more than a hundred experts from all over the world, not just climatologists but also architects, anthropologists, botanists, ethnologists and engineers. "Despite all our technological advances, at the heart of the socio-economic 'DNA' of the city is the climate, and the resources available within it," explains Piesik. "The influence of climate and resources is particularly apparent in the compact designs of desert cities. These are located not 'in the middle of nowhere', as might be thought at first sight, but adjacent to water sources, oases and trading routes. Historically, such cities have been exemplars of social and religious cohesion that evolved over time in an organic and sustainable way."
Traditional constructions in the Tropical Belt: a typical "Rumah adat" hut on the island of Sumba, eastern Indonesia: not yet clad with thatch, it reveals its principal structure of bamboo. (Photo Justin Coupertino Umbu)
In reality the architect's fascination with the desert habitat stems from her own experience. Polish by birth but a Londoner by adoption, Piesik used to work for an international studio that sent her to Dubai to supervise the construction of one of the city's many skyscrapers. But she was drawn more to anthropology and to local construction techniques and began her own exploration of them, developing a particular interest in the way the Bedouin used palm leaves to build light and very sturdy huts in a short space of time. "Everyone talks about a 'change of paradigm'. I really changed mine. I abandoned skyscrapers and stayed in Dubai for seven years to study structures made from the leaves of date palms and their possible evolution. While the maximum width of the Bedouin huts was approximately two metres, with my experiments I succeeded in creating spaces of 500 square meters."
Un esempio di costruzione tradizionale nella fascia temperata: le antiche torri della regione sino-tibetana hanno pilastri di pietra rinforzati con travi di legno e resistono da secoli malgrado l'area sia fortemente sismica. (courtesy Professor Don Choi)
Out of this experience came her first book, Arish: Palm-Leaf Architecture (Thames & Hudson, 2012). The second, just brought out by the same publisher, is called Habitat: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Planet. Here the author has taken the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system, which divides the planet up into five climate zones (tropical, dry, temperate, continental and finally polar and alpine), and brought together images of vernacular buildings from each zone. The results are certainly not revolutionary but become highly significant in the context of research extended to cover the entire planet. We discover for example that in earthquake-prone zones there are wooden buildings and structures made of earth that have stood for centuries; that in countries at the antipodes to one another but situated in the same climatic zone a very similar architecture is constructed out of the same kind of plants; that all societies in arid areas build with earth, straw and palm leaves.
Today's architectures in line with tradition: the Jianamani Visitor Centre in Yushu (China), by Atelier TeamMinus, uses local layout and construction techniques. (Photo Li Brian Zhang)
Wood, stone and brick, the materials of the temperate zone, have given rise to architectural styles – typically the European ones – that have ended up unduly "colonizing" many other parts of the planet. "Globalization and modernism have at times brought with them alien and non-climate-specific typologies that expelled originality and, above all, the use of local, natural materials," argues the author. "'Copy and paste' western solutions are, in many cases, out of context and overscaled. Countries need to establish a new paradigm for the expansion of their built environment, based on a sensitive use of local resources as well as meeting modern needs and aspirations."
The key word for the future, concludes Piesik, is "adaption". "If we do not want to be struck by the most devastating effects of climate change, we have to take a holistic approach that integrates the benefits of modernity with the solutions developed by humanity over millennia. And to do this, more multidisciplinarity and interaction between the different bodies of knowledge are needed."
Habitat: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Planet
Sandra Piesik
Thames & Hudson (Great Britain)
Flammarion (France)
Edition Detail (Germany)
Blume (Spain)
Abrams Books (North America)
2017, 600 pages, 99,82 euro
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