The technical and the social: challenges in the conservation of earthen vernacular architecture in a changing world (Jujuy, Argentina)

Abstract

Vernacular earthen architecture presents a series of relevant conservation challenges that involve designing solutions for different kinds of alterations and degradations. Other challenges of a social nature simultaneously arise and are related, among other factors, to the participation of local communities and the actions of different institutional actors. Understanding these phenomena has generally been approached from perspectives that take technical considerations and social dynamics as separate fields. The current global context has resulted in an acceleration of changes in these dynamics, in terms of both techniques and management models, giving rise to the need to develop comprehensive conceptual and methodological approaches through which these challenges should be addressed jointly by recombining the technical and the social.This paper will analyse the main problems affecting vernacular architectures in three communities in northern Argentina, where earthen techniques have been very relevant. We will reflect on various potentially useful theoretical frameworks, incorporating concepts from the anthropology of technology and methodological approaches from an ethnography of conservation as a way to work with multiple ontologies.

Architecture

“…For example, a study of the city of Djenné, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mali, identified contrasting perspectives on how the city's building heritage should be managed: that of the local participants, to whom the city is an everyday place to live in, and that of (international) heritage experts, who regard it as universal heritage to be preserved (Joy 2012). Similar discrepancies in perspectives have been identified all over the world (Tomasi and Barada 2021). Interestingly, the development of new architectural forms as a result of processes of cultural change (for example, multi-generational homes, communal living experiments, or so-called 'tiny houses') has received less anthropological attention thus far.…”

Spatial Evolution of Traditional Village Dwellings in Heilongjiang Province

“…Through the understanding and absorption of these papers in the process of writing this one, the connotation of Heilongjiang traditional culture gradually emerged, and especially the degree of the influence of immigrant culture on the province. In the process of heritage protection, we should not only unilaterally pursue its essence, but also comprehensively consider the issues to achieve economic and social sustainability [20,21].…”

Vernacular earthen architectures. Institutionalisation and management models for its conservation in northern Argentina

“…While in the Church of Uquía this included the use of layers of cement mortar and plastic membranes, in the Casa del Marques during part of the 20th century, the mud cake was replaced by an integral tile roof. In both cases, the solutions not only failed to improve the performance of the roofs, but also generated diverse pathologies, particularly in Uquía (Tomasi, Barada, 2021). In this framework, the institutionalisation of the conservation of these heritages, with their associated management models, implied the incorporation of materials and techniques that are also integrated in the institutional technical valuations.…”