Folk architecture: a study of the private huts in the Orongorongo River Valley

Abstract

In all systems of architecture both function and expression have a place. Every building performs work, if it is only to keep off the rain or to remaìn upright against the wind. At the same time even the simplest structure produces a visual impression. Beauty and use, symbol and structure, meaning and practical function, can hardly even in a formal analysis be separated; for a building, however artless, however innocent of conscious speech on the part of the builder, by its very presence cannot help saying something. LEWIS MUMFORD ...The early bach was that straight forward cottage that is reinvented everywhere in the world where a simple house is needed. It is rectangular in plan, with a gabled roof on rafters that can be extended to take lean-to additions... ...if we are to seek common ground between the high architecture of the professional designer and the folk building of the amateur, we might most easily find it in the architecture of the bach and crib... DAVID MITCHELL (New Zealand Architect and Author). This report examines the bush huts of the Orongorongo river valley. It looks at their form and construction and what changes to these, have occurred over the years. It also examines the theories of vernacular architecture and typology in order to give an objective evaluation of these dwellings. J.M.Richards [1973,p19] argued that the English suburbs are a distinct vernacular in his book The Castles on the Ground. ... But it (the suburbs) has the one quality of all true vernaculars, that of being rooted in the peoples instincts... Richards [1973,p2] saw the suburb as a distinct phenomenon and not, ...the town spread thin nor the country built close... This report is a similar study to see if there is a unique tradition in the building of these huts resulting from their remote circumstances, or whether in fact they are merely the suburb spread more thinly.