ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE: A CHALLENGE TO SUSTAINABLE DESIGN PRACTICES AND

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR LEARNING FROM THE PAST

David BENJAMIN, PhD, Sivilarkitekt, MNAL, LEED AP 1

Keywords: cultural heritage, design skills, learning from the past, low-tech, sustainable architecture

Abstract
The Nordic countries have a well established tradition of caring for their still standing timber and stone architectural
heritage. This heritage not only represents an archive of aesthetic norms for national or regional architecture, but several
authors have pointed out how these buildings may help to point the way to both a more effective energy conscious
renovation of historic architecture and be a guide for the sustainable architecture of the future. (Benjamin,1993). Fossdal
et al, (1999) and Myhre, (1996) have both written on how detailed studies of historically significant wood structures can
assist us in understanding how to design and renovate for more environmentally aware, more energy efficient, and
longer lasting buildings, that are at the same time a material expression of their region, in wood and other indigenous
materials. Examples of such timber buildings over 800 years old point up the opportunity to discover significant design
strategies, material working techniques, and technologies for both better energy efficiency and longer useful life. The
author will discuss several case studies of how building know-how in the region is being applied to renovating both very
old and more recent building to develop a low climate impact cultural heritage.

1. Introduction: The Challenge Before Us

Due to the significant, even worldwide, contribution of buildings and cultural landscapes to global climate
change and the environment in general, the construction industry is looking for practical responses that will
reduce the emission of climate gases, produce a built environment acceptable to stakeholders, and at the
same time allow the industry to survive financially. This is apparently no small task, and is likely to become
yet more challenging because of the modifications to the climate, weather patterns, reduced resource
reserves, legislation, and the phenomena of invasive species, mainly brought about by this same global
climate change.

Widespread environmental degradation on the smaller but nonetheless significant regional scale is not new,
and is thus an archive of lessons that modern society may benefit from. (Diamond 2005). Thus, during the
course of human development, by 10.000 BC, the Levant experienced drought, high temperatures, over
population, and the profligate use of natural resources, especially water and woody biomass. (Ponting 2007).
While many of the regional climatic challenges to ancient cultures may have been caused by human impact,
these changes in any case forced people at the time to begin cultivating plants, holding domesticated
animals, and figuring out ways to store the overproduction of these primary goods. Further, this led to a rapid
re-working of the architecture of the Levant to serve these storage needs, to concentrate these stores into
larger conglomerations of warehouses for more rapid exchange and status building, and to further build
structures that could signify both this new status and in general manage the new thought processes of urban
life. (Papanek 1995).

Again, by the fifth century BC, most of the Greek landscape had become treeless to serve the construction
and energy needs of the empire. Contemporary Greek architects began already here to systematically take
advantage of passive solar design for daylighting and heating through south facing windows and courtyards.
(Butti et. al. 1980). Toward the turn of the Millenium, the Roman empire was even more profligate in the use
of resources, which in turn forced them to also turn to the use of passive solar building design. Thus, in the
first century AD, Seneca recorded the first use of clear materials such as mica and glass to glaze the
openings of the houses of the wealthy, public baths, and greenhouses. Examples include Hadrian’s villa at
Tivoli (120-125 AD), and the baths at Ostia (ca. 150 AD). This allowed them to retain a significantly greater
amount of solar and internal thermal gain while at the same time reducing heat losses from convection,
infiltration, and the re-radiation from surfaces, without a significant reduction in daylight efficacy. (Addis
2007; Thatcher 1958). The Roman architects Faventus and Palladius increased the heat delivery efficiency
of this solar design concept and added heat storage by filling the crawl space under the inhabited floors with
rubble stone. Such solar innovations spread into law, where the Justinian Code of the sixth century
guaranteed the right to solar access for buildings. (Butti 1980). Thatcher’s (1958) work on the solar baths at
Ostia and Fitch’s (1972) work on igloos and Native American housing are two examples of groundbreaking
but still relevant work, demonstrating the simple but very effective and efficient use of a sensitivity to context,
local materials, and climate.

1
David N. Benjamin, Sivilarkitekt, MNAL, Oslo, Norway, david@benjaminarkitektur.no
And yet, are not the modern challenges of architecture practiced on a global basis too complicated and
demanding for any inspiration from the past? First, It is exactly a sensitivity to the context, including the
course of the sun in the sky, the local climate, geography, building methods, and user preferences that are
just as if not more determinative for the making of good built environments, rather than financial agreements,
insurance policies, interest rates, and real estate economics. Second, such contextual sensitivity allows the
design team to satisfy the now pressing need for a new sense of ethics in architecture, where energy
efficiency, energy conservation, the use of renewable and on-site energies, and the careful use of renewable
or recycled resources play a role in forming the ongoing discussion of how humanity should inhabit the
landscape.

In reviewing the literature concerned with both vernacular (Guidoni 1975; among others) and ancient
architecture (Addis 2007; among others) many examples indicate that sensitivity to the climate and ingenuity
in gaining a reasonable level of human comfort were attributes of the building arts and the skills of these
designers from around the world. Even though a great deal of literature has been published on the above,
interrelated subjects, they are however apparently subjectively circumscribed. First by usually only looking at
buildings with ornament or symbolism of some kind, second by neglecting programmes such as simple
farmhouses or barns, and third by simply pigeonholing primitive or indigenous architecture into the realm of
anthropology, not architecture. Despite these limitations, writers at the theoretical and practical levels have
begun to define the field from the middle of the last century. (Rapaport 1969; Rudofsky 1977; Prussin 1995;
Myhre 1982; Egenter 1992; Bourdier et. al. 1996; Farmer 1996, Oliver 1997, 2007; Glassie 2000; among
many others).

Further, both Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies Van der Rohe lauded the architecture of the past and of simple
agrarian societies for their structural clarity, unity of material, and their sensitivity to the environment. (F.L.
Wright 1911; Bugge et. al. 1969).

The field of study is thus disputed and controversial, many authors have shown interest, there are lacunæ in
the knowledge, the field has up until now been categorized and defined from a biased and limited viewpoint,
while several practicing architects have reported on their own experiences of being inspired by vernacular
and ancient buildings. (Bruegmann and Prowler 1979). According to Wilkinson (1991), the field is thus
worthy of serious scientific or scholarly study, exactly because of this interest and controversy.

2. The Ancient and the Vernacular

2.1 Conventions of Studying Past Architectures

Traditionally, ancient architecture has been studied within the well-known fields of archaeology, anthropology,
and the history of architecture. Since the latter part of the 19th century, two new fields have provided new
insights to the past from a different perspective on methodology and a broader view of the results of the
research.
2.1.1 Experimental Archaeology

Experimental archaeology originated in the 1880s in Switzerland and Denmark with the construction of new
buildings meant to simulate ancient structures, based on excavation reports and scholarly speculation.
(Coles 1979). Up until today, hundreds of such 1:1 simulations have been built around the world with whole
open-air museums devoted to the professional reconstruction and experimentation with buildings based on
what we know of ancient shelter. The experimental construction processes and trial tests with life in and
around these buildings is providing new knowledge not only about how people lived in the past but indeed,
information about the behavior of building materials and designs that are interesting in relation to so-called
sustainable construction of today, such as clay or straw walls, heavy timber structure, non-chemical wood
surface treatments, lime based plasters, dynamic insulation, the planning advantages of longhouses, wind
responsive designs, climatically responsive designs, and so on. (Draiby 1991; Hansen 1981; Haslestad
1994).

To glean useful knowledge for design practice from these sources, it is necessary to combine building know-
how from the recent past, excavation records and archaeological interpretations, results in the form of
buildings, drawings, and research reports from experimental archaeology, and historical/ethnological records
of recent spatial, economic, and physical concepts, into some model of ancient and indigenous architecture.
Such a model can then be analyzed with the following methods:

1. Testing by physical or thought experiments to study some specific aspect of architecture, for
example, testing the ability of Iron Age dwellings from Scandinavia for their ability to provide indoor
air and thermal comfort with the monitoring of physical parameters in real-life living simulations in
actual reconstructions or in computer simulations of the same
 2. Comparison to the models of other authors and comparison to their results, both synchronic and
diachronic, if the original premises, theories, and methods of each study are known and are
comparable, for example, comparing such aspects of building design as the outdoor wind resistance
and turbulence patterns and the indoor air quality and thermal comfort provided by the so-called
‘black houses’ of Scotland with model simulations of Iron Age long-houses of the North Sea area

By working with such models, we acquire not only information on the past and how it may be applied to
modern construction challenges, but also we learn more about how these models can be improved in terms
of methodology and detailed research design. Further, testing the models points us in the direction of
aspects of architecture that we may have missed in our original research programme. For example, Draiby
(personal communication), reported to this author that when farm animals were allowed to roam in and
around the reconstructions at Lejre Historical-Archaeological Research Center in Denmark, the researchers
found that the large vertebrates damaged the walls by scratching themselves, something that most likely
occurred in the Iron Age but something that most architects do not think about when designing buildings.
Finally, almost all such studies of ancient architecture, with the exception of some few such as Thatcher
(1958), and Benjamin (1993), have focused either on the more qualitative aspects of building design, such
as ancient room planning, general interpretations of aesthetics, or on subjective impressions of comfort
provision, energy efficiency, and the environmental relevance of ancient building techniques. While these
studies have certainly led to building designers using general planning principles from ancient architecture,
such as narrow streets to provide shade in hot-dry climates, and certain construction concepts, such as tall
wind-catchers to provide thermal differential towers to draw cooler air into buildings in hot-dry climates, there
is yet more potential in the field should we follow these studies up with more systematic and physical
research.
2.1.2 The Anthropological Study of Architecture

Further, architects and anthropologists have begun to study settlement and shelter from the anthropological
viewpoint (including the field of archaeology), meaning the study of how the built world is a frame for human
production and reproduction, both physically and symbolically, and in turn, how this human culture uses and
interprets this framework. (Egenter 1992). Much of this work has concentrated on indigenous societies
although recent studies have looked at the over-developed and profligate societies. (Diamond 2007; Wilk
1990; Lawrence 1990; Gullestad 1984; Rapaport 1969).

2.1.3 Examples of Studies

One such study by this author looked at farmhouses from the Scandinavian Bronze and Iron Ages.
(Benjamin 1993). The relationship between architecture and the natural environment during these two eras
seemed interesting, where the home was used as both a modern and ancient informant generated concept
to gain insight as to how and why societies of that era and place inhabited the landscape. Other studies have
looked at still extant ancient structures, making use of their continued use or the verbal/written records of
recent inhabitants to more closely study the use and interpretation of ancient or indigenous buildings.
(Cataldi 1992, 1996; Antell 1994; Walker 1996; Harrison 1999; among many others).
2.2 Types of Results from the Study of the Vernacular and the Past
The results from the study of ancient architecture and the recent vernacular have rediscovered for us:
1. different interpretations of space, as for example the scale of the home in Iron Age Scandinavia
extended to the village and its associated fields, not merely to the limits of the physical walls of the
house
2. how the ownership of socio-historically and ecologically significant land and buildings are interpreted,
sanctioned, and cared for, through concepts such as home and wilderness, among others
3. the effective and efficient use of natural and locally available building materials
4. alternative perspectives on the efficient provision of thermal comfort in buildings
5. the use of simple elemental or hybrid building materials for construction
6. the enhanced ability to relate to the landscape aesthetically through the use of locally available
materials
7. how prudently scaled structures result in more community participation in the construction process
and how this can contribute to more capital remaining in the community
8. the enhanced perceptual capabilities and technical skills of indigenous and vernacular builders that
affect their acuity, dexterity, and their general problem solving creativity

The main types of resources for these sorts of studies include:

1. on-site observation of societies with intact building practices known to be remnants of, or similar to,
ancient and indigenous groups.
2. archaeological or anthropological interpretations of extant buildings traditions or the remains of these
traditions in structures and informant records (Barber and Welsh 1992; Greeves 1992)
3. ethno-methodology, the study of societies contemporary with the observer
 4. architectural history, culture history, technological history, environmental history, and the general
history of societies
5. written literature, such as books, journals, and websites, film, video, and audio recordings

3. Examples of Knowledge Useful for Modern Architecture and Landscape Design Practice
Relevant useful knowledge can be divided into the following two categories: First, knowledge of building
design, component/assembly manufacture, and materials, and second capabilities of relevance to design
practice and research, such as knowledge of the history of building technology, archaeology, indigenous or
vernacular habitation, and skills involving craftsmanship.

These skills are not only acquired through the more traditional academic study of architecture, such as
through literature, drawing, and model making or the statics and energetics of buildings, such as through
computer simulation and hand calculations, but also through actually building new structures or taking part in
the restoration of existing buildings. Activities that contribute to the designers ability to gain these
sensitivities can include working with nuances of color, lighting, and indoor comfort, and technical activities,
such as best practices for the mixing and use of natural pigments and material finishes, the working of wood,
stone, metal, etc. All of these areas of knowledge and skill sets are in addition to knowledge and skills
having to do with conventional ‘sustainable’ design, such as Life Cycle Analysis, energy analysis, climatic
design, and participatory design and charrette management, to name some of the more important ones.

The additional skills inspired by the study of the past and vernacular architectures provide the designer of
sustainable built environments an enhanced sensitivity to:
1. how our cultural heritage can become a part of the present and future, as it is for most societies, a
physical record of thousands of years of design knowledge and the successes and failures of
thousands of iterations of testing human responses to design challenges (Ørum-Nielsen 1996)
2. the complex of sensory coordination between the brain, the hand, and all the 5 senses, providing the
designer with greater ability to gain knowledge about and predict the results of designs modeled in
drawings, maquettes, or computer simulations (Haslestad 1994; Jerkbrant 1994)
3. the technical skills of manipulating physical materials which enhances the designers sense of form,
proportion, size, and geometrical relationships, along with developing a sense of the right scale of
objects, processes, and energies, in a balanced relationship to the programme for the building or
environment
4. the relationship between models and real buildings, as it should be remembered that many of the
high-tech structures of Buckminster Fuller were not drawn or modeled by BIM CAD/CAM software,
they were hand drawn

3.1 Materials and Assemblies of Importance

There are several materials popular in the past that are useful for modern construction.
The general category of earth building, including the use of straw, has become popular again, especially
after the studies produced by researchers such as Minke (2006, 2005) and King (1996) were published. This
is in addition to several more popular books that have been produced in the U.S. and Europe from the 1950s.
These studies go into detail about the energetic and statical/dynamical physical properties of clay, adobe,
straw, and the different hybrid variants of these materials, showing that in many cases and when detailed
correctly for the appropriate climate, they have characteristics that are equal to or better than more modern
materials.
While lime plaster has been used for 1000’s of years, builders now use it mixed with linseed oil paint and
concrete to finish masonry, wood frame, adobe, and strawbale buildings in order to produce a tough,
paintable, but breathable cover for structural assemblies. (Reichel 2004).
Straw and clay/adobe structures are especially well suited to the arid areas of the earth, whether temperate
or warm, as these areas normally experience large diurnal temperature swings and have a reasonable
amount of available solar gain over the year. Thus, where insulation is needed, the straw wall can provide a
U value of approximately 0.14 W/m2-K for a 50 cm wall, while the same thickness of adobe provides enough
mass to both hold onto a day’s worth of heat and at the same time hold this heat until nighttime to re-radiate
it to the interior of the building. Such materials are of course most sustainable if the straw and adobe are
locally available, so that the carbon budget for transport is minimized, but this coincides with another
tradition of vernacular architecture, that of relating to the environment with local materials. Further,
clay/adobe, also with lime plaster, is a breathable material, allowing water vapour to pass through the wall
but not water itself, thus regulating the interior humidity of the building and the structural envelope itself.
These properties have given rise to the introduction of new light-clay mixtures, used to produce mold-able
infill materials, reed-burlap-clay bybrid prefabricated dry boards for interior finishing, and un-burned clay
blocks as exterior and interior prefabricated wall panel products. (Chappell 1998; Hugues 2004).
Finally, wood is yet one of the best, all-round materials. It can:
1. function as structure, wall/roof infill, finish material, and isome environments as a foundation
2. is rapidly renewable
3. can be easily worked for jointing or other purposes, with hand tools, even tools that are made by
other hand tools
4. with significant thickness, it can have reasonable insulating characteristics for some climates
5. can be easily worked to produce decorative effects, has apparently a pleasing appearance from
natural grain patterns and colors, and is often pleasing to the touch and smell
6. sequester the carbon that the tree produced in its growth, for the life of the building, and in the case
of some long-standing Scandinavian structures, as much as 800+ years

4. Conclusions on Design Practice

Examples such as the Raulandsstua, from the Numedal valley in Norway (not even the oldest wooden
standing structure in Norway), dated to around 1250 A.D., are notable examples of the durability of the
mostly forgotten vernacular of peripheral societies. With the advent of the need for new, creative thinking
and immediate solutions for the reduction of climate emissions due to the construction and operation of the
built environment, such durability, use of local materials, and indeed, popularity of such a material, it is easy
to see why the study of the building arts of the ancient and more recent vernacular societies is worth the
attention of modern architects and engineers. See Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
The plan of this dwelling house is relatively uncomplicated but only as complex as it needed to be for the
extant programme of inhabitation of the contemporary society. Thus, the communal activities of washing,
food making, mending and making tools and clothing, were carried out on the ground floor in the main room
with the fireplace, the sleeping occurred in the loft space above or on the ground floor, and an entrance
through the foyer protected the living rooms from draft, which also served to store materials and tools.
Modern architecture, I would suggest, needs to find its way back to such prudence with the use of materials,
scale, combinations of assemblies, flexibility, repairability, and level complexity that the Raulandsstua
represents.

Fig. 1 Outside 3 quarter view raulandsstua

Fig. 2 Floor plan raulandsstua

Fig. 3 Sections raulandsstua

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