vernacular architecture

Minangkabau architecture from West Sumatra, Indonesia, inspired by the shape of a buffalo horn A traditional Kinnauri house, built in the Kath Kuni vernacular style, in the Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh, India English vernacular building, 16th-century half-timbering and later buildings, in the village of Lavenham, Suffolk A pair of single 1920s shotgun houses in the Campground Historic District of Mobile, Alabama

Vernacular architecture (also folk architecture) is building done outside any academic tradition, and without the involvement of professional designers and architects. Vernacular architecture is not a particular architectural movement or style. Rather, it is a broad category, encompassing a wide range and variety of building types; with differing methods of construction from around the world, including historical and extant, classical and modern examples. In 1995, Amos Rapoport estimated that vernacular architecture constitutes 95% of the world's built environment, as measured against the small percentage of new buildings every year designed by architects and built by engineers. Vernacular architecture directly influences traditional architecture, a professional and academic practice deliberately and explicitly referencing and continuing local historical traditions and vernacular.