INALTERABLE DREAMS		Introduction		Gallery 1		Gallery 2		Gallery 3		Epilogue

An Introduction to INALTERABLE DREAMS

Value in the Vernacular

"The true basis for the study of art and architecture still lies in those
indigenous more humble buildings everywhere that are to architecture
what folklore is to literature or folk song is to music."
-- Frank Lloyd Wright

The environmental fabrics of neighborhoods and communities create
frameworks for living which profoundly shape the human experience.  While
their planning is not always a conscious effort, communities often succeed
because they achieve a balance between what the people choose to take
from their land and living environment, and what they elect to return to it.  The
architecture of these communities, whether called vernacular, spontaneous,
anonymous, indigenous, or even "primitive," rarely fails to relate to the
physical and social needs of a people.  In many cases, the ultimate design
solution is the empirical product of generations who have worked and refined
their buildings to create a regional architecture which addresses local
conditions of climate and topography and societal values as well.

Folk architecture has always served as a basis for the study of architectural
history and theory.  The Parthenon, the greatest classic edifice of ancient
Greece, is clearly the monumental interpretation of a simple portico house.
In the Modern Movement, leading architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and
Le Corbusier commonly referenced vernacular influences in their own work.
But it was not until Bernard Rudofsky's revolutionary 1964 exhibition
"Architecture Without Architects" that scholars, some reluctantly, accepted
the topic into academic classes or recognized it as a legitimate research area.

In Architecture Without Architects, Bernard Rudofsky recognized the logic
and straightforwardness of these "non-architects" as ". . . the talent and
achievements of anonymous builders whose concepts sometimes verge on
the utopian, whose aesthetics approach the sublime."  On their work he
continued, "The beauty of this architecture has long been dismissed as
accidental, but today we should be able to recognize it as the result of rare
good sense in the handling of practical problems."  In recent years, the study
of vernacular architecture has achieved international significance.  At
interdisciplinary conferences around the world, scholars from all areas of the
humanities have joined with environmental leaders and design professionals
to propose the thesis that by examining successful vernacular architecture,
not to repeat the designs, but to understand how that architecture responds
to the needs of the people who created it, we might gain new insights in
designing honestly and intelligently for our own needs.

Notes on Past Research,
Methodology and Objectives

Since 1975, I have taught a graduate seminar in vernacular architecture and
folk environment, presenting the subject as a human phenomenon,
impacted by culture and nature, but shaped mainly by universal
determinants common to all people.  From community sites studied during
my field research in China, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Tunisia, Borneo, Turkey,
Spain, Thailand, Egypt, Nepal, Tibet, Australia, and New Guinea, I examine
conditions found in many of the world's traditional settlements which affect
their sustainability in an ever more technologically based global society.
I focus on folk environments as human legacies of the past,
as sources of inspiration, and as models for critical reinterpretation.

I have conducted field research in indigenous and vernacular living
environments for over thirty years.  I have directed my research efforts
whenever possible to regions of the world where clear and dramatic
examples of folk architecture still remain, seeking built work of architectural
clarity, historic significance, and cultural worth.  My first field studies were
conducted in Latin America and focused on the house architecture of the
Indian "parajes" of Chiapas, Mexico.  Later, in Bolivia and Peru, I studied the
Aymara and Quechua villages of the Andean "antiplano."  Throughout the
1980's, I continued my investigations in Latin America, and also conducted
similar studies of the American Midwest's rural vernacular architecture.

Since 1988, my principal research efforts have focused on a study of the folk
living environments of China.  On seven occasions I have led
interdisciplinary research teams funded by the UIUC Research Board, the
Alan K. and Leonarda F. Laing Endowment, the Graham Foundation and the
Hewlett Foundation to a variety of study sites.  Teams have included
ecologist/landscape architect Jonathan Hammond of UIUC and UC Davis
(1988, 1989, 1992), architect/professor Chen Yi of Tongji University (1992,
1997, 2002), architect Gao Bei of Tongji University (2002) and other
scholar/translators.  In these field efforts, I have visited numerous rural
communities and intensively gathered research data.  Specific site
information has been documented by measured drawings, sketches,
photographs, detailed travel journals and interviews with village residents.
My principle research objectives have been:

To record significant quality examples of indigenous
vernacular planning types which have not been
broadly studied, exhibited or published and which may
be significantly threatened by change as a result of
twentieth and twenty-first century demands.

To study man-environment relationships from a
viewpoint which will yield exhibit materials and
publications in which architecture and planning
are viewed as a stage for human activity
and daily life.

To determine the contribution of villages studied in relationship
to their place in architectural and urban planning theory worldwide.

To compile sufficient comprehensive research information
on the villages of China to complete a book manuscript and/or
a major photographic exhibit.

Bio

James P. Warfield is an architect and educator teaching architectural design
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He has, since 1988,
headed the UIUC/Tongji University Summer Program in China.  In his
studio, he focuses upon projects of international scope and presents
methodology for designing in foreign cultures.  In his own research, he
focuses upon the study of form determinants in architectural design as
demonstrated in worldwide examples of vernacular building.  He has, for
over thirty years, conducted continuous original field research among
indigenous populations ranging from Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru to China,
Thailand and Nepal; and from Kenya, Mali and Namibia to Borneo, New
Guinea and Fiji.  This past year, he presented his research in two
international exhibitions:  "Architecture of Occasion" at Istanbul Technical
University and "Time and Architecture" at Tongji University in Shanghai.
This winter, he will exhibit "Inalterable Dreams:  The People and Architecture
of China's Folk Environments" in Shanghai and Chicago.  He received the
2001-2002 Distinguished Professor Award from the
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

-- January 1, 2003, Champaign, Illinois