ISVS-6

The International Seminar on Vernacular Settlements (ISVS) is pleased to announce the ISVS-6; the sixth ISVS Conference in Famagusta, hosted by the Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus between the dates 19-21 April, 2012.

ISVS aims to promote awareness and research on vernacular traditions by organizing seminars focused on important aspects of vernacular every two years in specifically chosen places across the globe. The last seminar, ISVS-5 held in Colombo, Sri Lanka focused on Vernacular Futures provided a great opportunity to explore the future of the vernacular traditions resulting in a suggestion that the survival and continuity of vernacular traditions may lie in ordinary informal buildings which are usually not regarded as vernacular. Building upon this insight, ISVS-6 in 2012 is delighted to lead the debate on vernacular traditions of contemporary societies and their building and settlement forms which display the same characteristics of the conventionally conceptualized lsquo;vernacular rsquo;. This does not mean that the lsquo;historical vernacular rsquo; is out of the conference scope. Instead juxtaposition of lsquo;historical vernacular rsquo; and the lsquo;contemporary vernacular rsquo; is expected to be explored in such a way that the nuances of their makings, and relevance in today rsquo;s world could be understood thoroughly.

Under this scope, ISVS-6 is delightfully announced on the theme  lsquo;Contemporary Vernaculars: Places, Processes and Manifestations rsquo; to incite and welcome interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners from around the world working in the disciplines of architecture, art amp; architectural history, urban studies, city amp; regional planning, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology and environmental studies for proposing papers and meeting inNorth Cyprus in April 2012.

ISVS-6 also expects to attract young researchers involved in postgraduate studies on contemporary vernaculars and offers a scientific platform to present and discuss their hypothesis and arguments, understandings and approaches, and methods and models with the scholars participating in the seminar. 

for more information see: http://isvs-6.emu.edu.tr/

Regency architecture survived Victoria’s accession in 1837 and houses with ‘Regency’ characteristics continued to be built through the 1840s but gradually and imperceptibly, Victorian architecture emerged as a style of its own, shaped by rapid population growth, the influence of new technologies and new materials and also, the intellectual input of theorists such as Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52), John Ruskin (1819-1900) and William Morris (1834-96). But first population: during Victoria’s reign, Britain’s population doubled with the urban based proportion increasing from 54% in 1851 to 79% by 1911. The result was a massive expansion of towns to which the speculative builder responded building suburbs which were sharply delineated by class. Working class districts were built cheek-by-jowl with the collieries, mills and factories which provided employment for their inhabitants. The housing generally consisted of rows of tightly packed terraces: although no longer fashionable after the 1850s, the terraced house remained the builder’s solution to the demand for cheap urban housing until the early 1900s. Cheap on land and materials they were either built back-to-back so that the rooms had no rear windows – or as through houses - which usually had a two storey rear extension containing the kitchen and a small third bedroom and with a privy (or W.C) and coal shed in the back yard. Whilst the back-to-backs and the poorest through houses were completely devoid of any embellishment or ornament, bay windows, moulded brickwork and other details were added to larger terraces which commanded higher rents and pretensions to respectability. But there was no mistaking the true Victorian middle class dwelling. Whether detached or semi detached, these solidly built and substantial houses were large enough to accommodate resident servants, the employment of at least one being a clear indicator of middle class status.