Memory without Monuments: Vernacular Architecture

Author(s): STANFORD ANDERSON

Source: Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review , FALL 1999, Vol. 11, No. 1 (FALL
1999), pp. 13-22
Published by: International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments
(IASTE)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41757728

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Traditional Dwellings and
Settlements Review

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TDSR VOLUME XI NUMBER I 1 999 13

Memory without Mon

Architecture

STANFORD ANDERSON

This article concerns the role of memory in vernacular architecture. I

tion between social memory and disciplinary memory in architecture

to the difference between the forms of memory embodied in the ver

preliterate and literate societies. In preliterate societies, the cohesion

memory in vernacular buildings allows the buildings to provide infor

but that past is not as much separate from, as subsumed in, the pres

societies develop records of their past - a past set apart, and so induc

cism. A continuity is actually present in these distinctions between th

embodied in the vernacular architecture of different societies, movin

ated with preliterate societies, through the variations within literate,

eties, and ending with the highly stylized "vernacular usage" in inten

While the growth of disciplinary memory has facilitated the establish

profession, a complete separation of social and disciplinary memory

destructive to the linkage between a society and its forms of architec

In 1995, in an essay in the journal Daidalos, I distinguished between

architecture" and "memory in architecture," in which the former involv
ried in architecture" and the latter concerned "the operation of memory
architecture itself."1 Among the examples I used to illustrate the form
Stanfird Anderson, architect"social memory"
and historian, - were medieval European copies of the Holy Sepulch
is Professor and Head of the Since the many
Department of "copies" of this holy site were quite different from one
Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute generated recall did not entail strict architectural norms.
its religiously
that
of Technology, Cambridge, MA. such social memory dominated architectural form and precedent

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
14 T D S R 1 1 . 1

a stabilizing of the ruin, now sheltered under a metal roof

(FIG.3). The architects also avoided the inclusion of interpret
panels. Disciplinary memory is at work here in two ways: it
the incomplete fabric of the building and its physical setting
that are restored, while the positive and negative decisions o
the new work (what was and deliberately was not done) rein-
forced the knowledge of what the artifact had been. In its n
state, one can recognize the unusual commitment involved
masonry building in isolation on the prairie at a moment of
resources; one sees its relation to the open plains; and one s
both of these all the more emphatically through the techniq
employed. One also comprehends a more extended history,
period of neglect and decay and, for that matter, even a theor
of preservation. But societal memory of the role of this place
Bleeding Kansas is something the viewer must bring to it -
await the installation of historical texts. The disciplinary me
ry embedded in Barber School is not to be seen as the archi-
tects' resistance of history; their solution intensifies those
aspects of societal memory that can be carried by the physica
site itself. But for those who want the detail of social events,
other resources would need be employed which, in turn, wou
be more compelling for having this physical setting.2
To step back slightly, it is perhaps possible to say that ne
ther social memory nor disciplinary memory is ever wholly
absent in any work. Variations between the numerous rec
structions of the Holy Sepulchre reveal different approach
to architecture, and thus also reveal disciplinary memory,
the service of something other than solely recalling the
esteemed
figure i. Fulda, Germany. St. Michael, 820-22. An example of a precedent
copy in the Holy Land. On the other hand,
projects of the "Revolutionary architects," while marked by
of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.)
invention of a particularly unique disciplinary memory, an
often addressed to unprecedented programs, do not wholly
escape
On the other hand, I illustrated the other type of social
memo- memory. Indeed, the impact of these works
ry - what I call "disciplinary memory" - with projects suchtheir implicit comparison with familiar form
often relies on
used of
as those of the so-called "Revolutionary architects" foreigh-
other purposes, with differences of scale or detail.

teenth-century France - specifically Etienne Boullée. In

projects such as the Pyramid for Turenne, this work involved
the recollection of significant precedents in a way that was
both more formally faithful and yet radically innovative in
scale, organization and meaning (fig.2). One sees here
architecture approaching an autonomous state.
Dennis Domer recently introduced me to a vernacular
work that serves well to demonstrate my distinction between
societal and disciplinary memory: the Barber School in Kansas,
an unusual stone building isolated on the prairie, dating from
the early stages of settlement. Thomas Barber, mourned in a
poem of John Greenleaf Whittier, was the only casualty in the
so-called Wakarusa War of 1855, part of the political and armed
conflict known as Bleeding Kansas that presaged the Civil War.
The one-room school named in his honor, having fallen into
disrepair, became in recent years a preservation project of facul-
ty and students of the University of Kansas. As the accompany-
ing photo indicates, the preservation was carried figure
out not as a
2. Etienne-Louis Boullée. Project for a pyramidal cenotaph f
restoration, as more conservative preservationists urged, but
Turenne, as
uncertain date, 1782?. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale.)

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ANDERSON: MEMORY WITHOUT MONUMENTS 15

fusion, to a looser but still identifiable relatio

to explore how these shifting degrees of rela
ly what may be termed a weak relation - acco
sage from pre-literate to literate societies. Fin
how this passage may also be a passage from
dent on memory alone to those with historic
other words, I will explore how differences in
memory in various societies may accord with
vernacular architectures, and between vernacu
and architecture that is more self-consciously
My aim in this discussion is to consider ex
senting a spectrum of societies, and of archit
preliterate societies, devoid of historical reco
vernacular architecture holds social and discip
figure 3. Douglas County, Kansas. The Barber School, 1871. Restored
close relation. Second are literate societies whi
1993-1998 by faculty and students of the School of Architecture and
give little emphasis to historical reconstructi
Urban Design, University of Kansas. (Photo courtesy of Dennis Domer. )
relatively close relation may be maintained b
disciplinary memory. Finally, I will look to lit
toricized societies with little that passes for v
All forms of memory, then, may move toward one another.
ture. Yet, even in such societies, I want to no
Nonetheless, even as the above briefly noted examples may sug-
be called "vernacular usage" still exists in var
gest, there is a history to the distinction of social and disciplinary
memory that merits attention. Furthermore I suggest there has
come to be more division of labor in modern times between the
VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE: COHESION OF
uses of these memory systems than there once was.
SOCIAL AND DISCIPLINARY MEMORY
It was precisely this question of how the relation of discipli-
nary memory to societal memory changed over time that I
I begin with a preliterate society, devoid of historical recon-
explored in the Daidalos essay. But in that essay I concentrated
struction, whose vernacular architecture holds social and discip
on architecture by recognized architects (whether known by
nary memory in close relation. Taking one example from
name or not) to show how the increased distinction between the
innumerable instances around the world, one can look to the
two forms of memory over time allowed the discipline of archi-
deserts of Gujarat, where there exist still today settlements of th
tecture to become a more rigorous and challenging activity. But
Banni people where a distinctive building form is closely corre
I also recognized the hazard for both architecture and society if
lated with local social life (FIG.4). Among the various aspects o
these two forms of memory arrived at a point of utter separation.
this social life is the art of building itself, serving to maintain
The above arguments invited prior questions, which I
existing physical structures, but also to build new units or com
want to explore here. The questions include the following:
pounds. Despite its presence from time immemorial, this art o
Was (or is?) there a condition under which social and disci-
building, like other customs in the social life of the Banni, is v
plinary memory were not separated? If so, under what con-
much a matter of the present. Until recently (and, then, only
ditions would social (or collective) memory and disciplinary
it was compiled by visitors from outside the community), ther
memory diverge? My telegraphic answers are these: first,
was no other record of this building technology or its use othe
what is commonly referred to as vernacular architecture rep-
than in the actual buildings and the craft knowledge of the
resents at least a close cohesion of social and disciplinary
builders, passed from generation to generation. One must con
memory; and second, it is the advent of writing and history
ceive that there have been changes in both the social life and t
that has invited the increasing distinction between these
building technology of the Banni; yet such processes are neces
memory systems. In proffering the above hypotheses, I use
sarily lost in time. Likewise, innovation may continue to occur
the term "vernacular architecture" to refer to works by
but
builders who, whether their names are it, too,
knownis experienced
or not, in response
are not to current conditions, an
then is lost in the continuing presence of the artifact.
recognized as architects. In doing so, I accept the ambiguity
inherent in this definition and the factI that
suggest
itthat the widely
connotes admired vernacular architec-
a wide
ture of many parts of the world - in Greece, for example
range of buildings in quite different societies.
would, until overridden
In addition to this issue of the close relation of socialby the radical changes of the twent
and
eth century, accede to similar analyses that show a close rel
disciplinary memory in vernacular architecture, I want to explore
tion of social and building programs.
several related issues here. One will be to relate the diversity of
vernacular architecture with the varying degrees of relation
between social and disciplinary memory - from a virtual

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
16 T D S R 11.1

relation of these memories to one another may appear seam-

less. The making of the physical environment is at one with
the social construction of the society; perhaps the builder
receives honor for demonstrable skills, but so too do others
who are part of this attainment of balance through both
maintenance and change. The generative reconstruction,
aimed at maintaining a stable present, subsumes distinctions
which only the external observer would make.
Again, according to Goody and Watt:

Literate societies, on the other hand, cannot discard, absorb,

or transmute the past in the same way. Instead, their mem-

bers are faced with permanently recorded versions of the past
and its beließ ; and because the past is thus set apart from
the present, historical enquiry becomes possible. This in
turn encourages scepticism; and scepticism, not only about
the legendary past, but about received ideas about the uni-
verse as a whole.
figure 4. Dhordo, India. Banni vittage. (Courtesy of Kidbushan Jain.)From here the next step is to see how to
build up and to test alternative explanations ; and out of this
there arose the kind of logical, spedalized, and cumulative
RELATION OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY TO HISTORY: intellectual tradition of sixth-century Ionia.5
PRE-LITERATE TO LITERATE SOCIETY

One might, of course, note that this description aptly

What, theoretically, can be made of this? Considering
summarizes the intellectual traditions of our own day, both in
the operation of memory in a society and its extension in and in other parts of the world. These are the pre-
the West
time, is it essential to make a distinction between those soci-for self-conscious forms of memory and for diver-
conditions
eties that possess only memory and those that confront
gences of memory systems within a single culture. These are
memory with history? In an oral society, even if there is apreconditions for memorialization - that is, assign-
also the
dynamic that leads to a collective understanding ofing
the
topast,
built form the explicit role of maintaining memory.
memory resides in individuals. The absence of records con-
tributes to the modification of social memory and tradition
from generation to generation. The past is not as VARIATION
much sep- OF MEMORY IN LITERATE SOCIETIES
arate from, as subsumed in, the present.
Studying preliterate societies, several authors have Inoted
would like to turn now to variations and changes of
the insistent attention of these societies to the present moment
memory in literate societies - still with attention to the pro-
and the distancing of the society from its past. In preliterate
duction or reception of vernacular architecture.
societies, cultural tradition is maintained in face-to-faceOncom-
my first visit to Saudi Arabia in 1980, to the highly
munication and in the context of present issues. In such an oil region of the Gulf, several students of architec-
developed
oral society .forgetting - and even forgetting that one forgets
ture kindly offered to take me to see what they termed "a
- is as important as memory. Jack Goody and Ian very
Wattold building." I expected to see some well-preserved
observed that "the social function of memory - and of forget-
example of indigenous mud-brick building - the former ver-
ting - can thus be seen as the final stage of what nacular
may be architecture of this region and culture (FIG.5). The
called the homeostatic organization of the cultural tradition
Eastern in
Province of Saudi Arabia is not the best place to see
non-literate society."3 Transformations of social practices or
such building, but many examples that would have satisfied
forms may or may not be noted at the time of the event, but
my neophyte's eye sped past the windows of the car.
are unlikely to remain in memory in face of the perceived
Eventually, however, we arrived at a town on the coast where
reinstatement of balance. Similarly, Jacques Le Goff observed
a small commercial building of mixed construction tech-
that collective memory functions in oral societies according
niques andto
some modest Art Deco detailing, probably circa
a "generative reconstruction" that eliminates or transforms
1940, proved to be the destination of our quest. At the time
those parts of the tradition that are no longer operative.4
of its construction, this building might have served as an
Under these conditions, what an outsider might call
example of the incorporation of innovations into the estab-
social and disciplinary memories participates in this homeo-
lished vernacular tradition. But viewed in 1980, in the pres-
static process, which constantly re-establishes balance
ence and
of local university students, and in the more general
allows present differences with the past to be forgotten.
context The
of a highly modernized society, my attention went

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ANDERSON: MEMORY WITHOUT MONUMENTS 17

critical memories. Compared to the West, the

archives and records, crucial to the critical use
been limited in Islamic societies - and where
have mainly been concerned with established
legal concerns. Records pertaining to change
duction in and for itself have had little place.
In Saudi Arabia, as in many countries, ther
course, been rapid change in these matters. F
after my visit, there had come to be a greater
and preservation of, the indigenous architectu
well as interest in adapting its forms and prin
rent development, as shown here in the Saud
Yemen (fig.6).7 What I mean to point out is t
tems of memory and historical consciousness
tinctive, have become more self-conscious, an
in concert with other aspects of Saudi develo
For their part, Goody and Watt were explicit
nature of new historical societies varies with th
guage. Significant variations extend to our ow
in the relation of language and history, and cer
societal apparatus constructed to facilitate or in
of history and its concomitant critical role. Tod
highly literate societies, there are still those tha
ahistorical. The concept of an archive, let alon
of archives and museums, is unevenly distribu
the world. In preliterate societies, then - but
societies that have not given a prominent place
studies - knowledge of the past and the relati
knowledge to the present is quite different from
toricized societies of the West (and perhaps el

figure 5. Unaizeh, Saudi Arabia. Indigenous mud brick building.

(Photo by author.) figure 6. Beha

Group (Riyadh).
Sana'a, Yemen.
more to the apparent difference in the historicity of my mind Saudi Embassy,
and that of my student hosts. It was remarkable that this 1988. (Photo by
stylistically mixed, relatively recent building was to fulfill the author. )
promise of "a very old building." The experience spoke
definitively of the disparities of historical orientation - and
systems of memory - between representatives of two highly
literate, but different, societies.
Writing makes possible inscriptions on memorial con-
structions, texts on supports conceived intentionally for the
maintenance of records, and, most important of all, changes
in mental attitude at both individual and social levels.
Nonetheless, there are variations among these changes from
one society to another. Rote learning or memorization, within
a culture that is both oral and literate, is argued to have long
been characteristic of Islamic societies.6 The relative weight
of memory and inquiry differs from one society to another.
What is remembered, and how, also differs. Memorization of
prescribed texts is quite different from a system that establish-
es the conditions for, and encourages, newly invented and

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
18 TDS R 1 1 . 1

FIGURE 7. In the early twentieth century, as Dutch architects pio-

W oudrichem, neered the field of social housing, the received type
The Netherlands.
influenced their work significantly.10 This tradition contin-
Houses in the
ued, with increased architectural and urban sophistication i
market street.
the work of M.J. Granpré Molière, as in his famous Vreewi
(Photo by community in Rotterdam (fig.8). Even architects of a dis-
author. ) tinctly modernist inclination established housing types that
relied significantly on this tradition, as in the Laan van
Meerdervoort in The Hague (FIG.9). Still more remarkable
much of the housing in the interwar years by Dutch archi-
tects of impeccable modernist credentials retained distincti
characteristics of the strong Dutch vernacular tradition, as
the work of J.J. P. Oud (fig.io). Even in the famous
Weissenhof Siedlung in Stuttgart in 1927, Oud and his fello
Dutch architect Mart Stam, working under an experimenta
program in another country, still built row houses (fig.ii).
Of all the modern architects of the era, only the Dutch arch
tects maintained these characteristic traditional approaches
But in this series of buildings, while there is a recogniz-
able tie, there is also a progressive loosening of ties to the
vernacular - and a loosening of the relation of social and
disciplinary memory. In any such progression a point will
ultimately be reached where one can no longer speak of ver
One might remark that this differentiation is not only to nacular architecture. This is where I believe one must shift

be recognized by country or language area, but also by disci- to talking about an underlying "vernacular usage/' Even
pline. Architecture has not been the most laggard of disci- though it goes beyond the scope of this article, it is possible
plines in the studied examination of its past, yet the to show how even in Dutch society, with its often strong
marketing of architectural drawings and the burgeoning of sense for tradition, the ties of new construction to vernacular
architectural archives and museums in the last two decades housing, or the relation of social and disciplinary memory,
speaks to a significant change in the relation of history and can still be burst asunder - as in massive housing estates of
artifacts also in the West.9 high-rise buildings in the postwar years.
So-called "vernacular architecture" may, then, be inter- Taking another step in our spectrum of examples, I offer
estingly correlated with distinctions of societies as preliterate a brief observation of the persistence of a vernacular usage in
or literate but also with varying linguistic and memory sys- high modern architecture. The work of the Mexican archi-
tems - historic societies, that is, with varying levels or types tect Luis Barragan is usually, and rightly, appreciated for the
of historic consciousness. abstraction of its forms, and particularly for its powerful use
of color. However, one need only walk the streets of a
Mexican village to find sources not only for such colors but
SUSTAINED VERNACULAR TRADITIONS WITHIN also for the play of apertures, space, light and color. And it
HISTORICAL SOCIETIES can happen that this phenomenon of vernacular architecture
is even more striking where the exteriors of houses are sim-
Continuing with my spectrum of examples, ply I nowwhite, but where, when they are opened for the evening
turn
to sustained vernacular traditions within historical societies.
air, an effusive world of color is lit, framed and revealed.
Degrees of "vernacular usage" within highly literate and
Most visitors to the Netherlands are struck by the distinctive-
ness of the typical houses, and thus the urban fabric of
historical the can range, then, from the relatively unself-
societies
conscious maintenance
old centers of Dutch towns (FIG.7). Characteristically, the of housing and urban forms, through
houses are of brick, in rows with the gable endsdeliberate
to the adaptations
street. of received vernacular types, to the adapta-
tion of elements
They are also relatively small but have large windows directlyacross time and space in explorations made
possible
at street level, and with little if any separation from it.by what I will call the quasi-autonomy of architectural
form. Thus, even
Collectively, these houses yield a cityscape of remarkable in highly literate and historical societies such
inti-
macy and openness. Houses of this type were built as thewithout
Netherlands or Mexico, one may find traditions of
dwelling type, of urban fabric, and even of architectural abstrac-
architects for centuries, most particularly from the
tion that arepresent
Renaissance until the twentieth century, establishing widely interesting, often contributive, persistences of
dispersed Dutch housing vernacular. earlier socio-cultural organization. By "tradition," here within

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ANDERSON: MEMORY WITHOUT MONUMENTS 19

figure 8. (left) M.J. Granpré-Molière. Rotterdam. Vreewijk housing estate, 3916-19. (P

figure 9. (right) J.W. van der Weele. The Hague. Houses in the Laan van Meerdervoo

MEMORY WITHOUT MONUMENTS

historic societies, I imply tradition that continues to serve in the
maintenance of a dynamic social equilibrium. Increasingly, this
will be "invented tradition."11 Yet I amInalso
the cases of the of
thinking vernacular
those in architecture given
above,
conventions or traditions that form the as different
substrate of as
anythey may be, it appears that social
society
- so pervasive that they are rarely memory
broughtand
todisciplinary
cognizance. memory retain significant ass
tions. One might
It is for the understanding of phenomena evenas
such speak of how they allow "memor
these
without monuments"
that the historical concept of "mentalities" - or, as
is particularly did Hermann Muthesius
apt.
howhistory
As Jacques Le Goff has written: "The memory may be an attribute .of
of mentalities . the
. very art of build
is also a meeting point for opposing Iforces
hypothesize that vernacular
which are being architecture, whether of pr
erate of
brought into contact by the dynamics or literate societies - and
contemporary even what we know as the
histori-
cal research: the individual and the collective, the long-termof modern settlements
"dwelling types" or "urban fabric"
and the everyday, the unconsciousraise
and intrinsically interesting the
the intentional, issues of architecture closely
to memory. I have presented
structural and the conjectural, the marginal and the general."12 these issues thus far in the co
This is an excellent catalog of the of argumentsthat
concerns that conceive
must be of oral
rep-societies (and even certa
resented in a study of traditional building practices (or what as deeply engaged in
aspects of literate/historical societies)
presenthistorical
may be called "the vernacular") within - in the maintaining of a homeostatic organization
societies.

figure 10. (left) J. J. P. Oud. Rotterdam. Kiejhoek housing estate, 1925-29. (Photo by author.)
figure il. (right) Oud. Stuttgart, Germany. Weissenhof housing estate, 1927. (Photo courtesy ofRotch Visual Colle

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
20 TD S R 1 1 . 1

The second
is as dependent on forgetting the past as it is on recalling it. caveat, as central to architecture as to histori-
However, the very fact that buildings themselves are usually
ograhy, is that of
building practice, or, more generally, what I h
long duration should raise another round of questions.
called disciplinary memory, has at least a degree of autonom
I would like to twist the argument slightly, and look
Certain fundamental tectonic forms - e.g., the post and lin
again at preliterate forms of vernacular architecture, as inthe
timber frame, myplaited wall infill, the arch, and so on - d
example of the Banni in Gujarat. Do the commentators on
oped independently in different cultures (fig.12). In differen
oral societies, concerned with the absence oftures,
texts and over time even in the same culture, the same tect
(whether
on memorial buildings or on other textual supports),
forms andfail to
physical organizations may serve different purpo
and meanings.
recognize how building itself, with its long duration, Both these facts - independent invention a
is a cul-
alternative
tural form that opens the possibility of historical uses - point to the quasi-autonomy of these, an
reflection?
Vernacular architecture may preserve or recall cultural
artisanal forms It is in this quasi-autonomy that archit
endeavors.
and social or disciplinary practices that would otherwise
discovers be discipline, the development of forms and o
its own
lost in the flux of the present. To accept a concept of "vernac-
zations that are not derived deterministically from social for
ular architecture as document," or even "building process
this point asto emphasize, however, that I am speaking
I want
document," would thus change the account of
of past and pre-
"quasi-autonomy." I do not think it desirable that architec
sent, of memory and historical sense, in preliterate societies.
should aspire to a similar level of autonomy as that of the so
I should note that current scholars obviously use
fine vernacular
arts. Under the concept of quasi-autonomy, more than on
architecture in this way. But my question iscan
whether, and
serve the if purpose, and the same form can serve diff
same
so when, the indigenous cultures themselvespurposes.
made that step.
Consequently, there is room for invention that is fu
To twist the question further, I propose two caveats
mentally to
architectural without sacrificing responsibility to socia
the exploration of vernacular architecture asThere
document.
is likewise the opportunity for successful reuse and reinte
Differentiations from one society or period to another
tation of the might
existing social investment in physical environment
I would
be necessary for two reasons. First, the capacity reinforce the matter of quasi-autonomy by st
of a vernacu-
lar building to serve as a document does noting
guarantee that it Within the same society, aspects of a
it differently.
pline
will be taken as such, any more than a written text may
that persist
fell by or be revived without engaging the s
associations
chance into the hands of a preliterate society would be. those
It is aspects had at an earlier period. Thus
necessary to arrive at a certain turn of mindartistic
to see and even artisanal activities cannot be reduced to
a building
as a document, as representing something other than
being its determined
either per- by, or the determinants of, soci
ditions.
formance in the present. One would therefore need The flip side of this argument is, of course, th
evidence
artifact
of this nascent historical sense before asserting that like vernacular architecture presents an ambig
build-
document for the reconstruction of beginnings and pas
ings served as documents at some earlier moment.

figure 12. Village north of

Jogjakarta, Indonesia.
Traditionally crafted house .

(Photo by author.)

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ANDERSON: MEMORY WITHOUT MONUMENTS 21

CONCLUSION or when they are as corrupting as reactionary appeals to racial

class, or national identity. And, then again, why not just aspir
From the above discussion and that of my earlier paper
to more, including a higher and more critical use of memory?
in Daidalos I re-emphasize the proposed distinctionThe
between
argument I have made is complex. Today it would be
social and disciplinary memory. Without the exploration and
difficult to find a truly preliterate society engaged in unmediated
development of disciplinary memory, there is no indepen- building. For that matter, the other instances of ver
indigenous
nacular
dence for the discipline of architecture. This does architecture and tradition I have mentioned - survivals
not pre-
clude responsible service to society as one also extends thepractices and memory systems within various literate
of earlier
quasi-autonomous content of architecture. Indeed, I would
societies, or the persistence of vernacular traditions and related
deliberately want to suggest its inclusion. "mentalities" in highly literate and historical societies, are also
I have argued that vernacular architecture in increasingly
its purest rare, especially if they are to be free of additional lay
sense, in the hands of unself-conscious builders ers
in indige-
of memory and interpretation. The nonhistorical or margin
nous cultures, may represent the fullest identification of
ally historical practices that are of concern today must be
social and disciplinary memory. I have been moved in
approached historically, with all the difficulties and ambiguities
observing such special environments in India, North Africa, Thus, the work of iaste will no doubt quite right
that suggests.
Bali, and elsewhere. Yet I do not put this identification
be morefor-
concerned with the complexities of how "the vernacu-
ward as an ideal (this is just as well, for in modern,
lar" literate,
has been interpreted than with the complexities (or
historical societies, such a condition is not available). Today
admirable simplicities) of the vernacular artifacts themselves.
it is unavoidable that one see these phenomena historically
The diversity of the subjects studied and the complexity of the
and critically. On the other hand, I have pointedways
to the main-
they can be known implies the importance of specific and
tenance of memory in a range of "vernacular usages" that
nuanced I
inquiry rather than the power of generalities.
find exemplary - even into highly abstract modernism.Nonetheless, I suggest that such inquiries would
In scholarship, or in practice, I assert the importance
profitablyof
begin by attempting to situate vernacular practice
attending to systems of memory. But I do this as muchthe
within to systems of memory operative in a given time an
fend off abuses as to recognize responsibilities and opportu-
place. This done, there must be further refinements based
nities. The uses of memory in the former Yugoslavia, or
on questions I have raised here: Does this instance of vernac
Northern Ireland, or central Africa today are awful. So, too,
ular architecture itself provide a historical document for its
was the use of memory in Nazi Germany, wherecontemporaries?
one could And does the work in question reveal
also point to distinct architectural correlates. important continuities first for a system of memory, and the
On the positive side, my predilections go to the more
for radi-
a history of the discipline of building - and thus for a
cal forms of "vernacular usage" I recognize in Oud and Stam
degree in
of autonomy of the discipline, even if this phenome-
Stuttgart, or in the work of Barragan. However, if non will appear
one turns to more decisively only later?
more conservative examples, problems abound. Claims for
authenticity and fulfillment of identity through the invocation of
memory are normally the rhetoric of dogmatists who would
lead us, individually and collectively, into desperation. Less
frightening concepts such as "inventing tradition," or even
"manufacturing heritage," sound immediately problematic.
Indeed, they are so, but they also cannot be immediately dis-
missed. It is clear that historical reconstruction of most that
society values will reveal just such "invention" and "manufac-
turing." In retrospect such invention will often be admired, but
at the same time it is important to be sceptical of such endeav-
ors. Thus, when Granpré-Molière "manufactured" Vreewijk, a
sizable, traditionally-based housing complex in the radically
modernizing port city of Rotterdam, he was understandably
criticized by the modernists around him. But, in response, I
suggest that the modernists themselves, at their best, have
employed "vernacular usage." And one can also point to how
today, seventy years later, Vreewijk is still a desirable living envi-
ronment, compelling sympathetic examination. Close attention
will then be required to discriminate when the Seasides and
Celebrations of the world are as worthy as Vreewijk, when they
are as nostalgic and vacuous as the Main Street of Disneyworld,

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
22 TD S R 11.1

REFERENCE NOTES 10. N. Stieber, "The Professionalization of

Housing Design: A Study of Collectivism and

An earlier version of this article was pre-Cultural Pluralism in Amsterdam," Ph.D. diss.,
sented as a keynote address at the SixthMassachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986.
Conference of the International Association Now see Stieber, Housing Design and Society in
for the Study of Traditional Environments, Amsterdam: Reconfiguring Urban Order and

held in Cairo, Egypt, in December 1998. Identity, 3900-1920 (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1998).
i. S. Anderson, "Memory in il. E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger, eds., The
Architecture/ Erinnerung in der Invention of Tradition (Cambridge:
Architektur," Daidalos 58 (Berlin) Cambridge University Press, 1983).
(December 1995), pp.22-37. 12. J. Le Goff, "Mentalities: A History of
2. D. Domer, "Building Memory: An Ambiguities," in Le Goff and P. Nora, eds.,
Apologia for the Senses," The Structurist, Constructing the Past : Essays in Historical
No.37/38 (1997/1998), pp.26-33. Also in Methodology (Cambridge: Cambridge
Memory and Architecture, Proceedings of the University Press, 1985), pp.166-80 [orig.
1998 West Central Regional Conference, Faire de l'histoire, vol.3, PP-7^'941-
Associated Collegiate Schools of 13. Speaking of the architecture of the
Architecture (St. Louis: Washington English Arts and Crafts, Muthesius wrote:
University, 1998), pp.12-17. "It was nothing other than a rejection of
3. J. Goody and I. Watt, "The Consequences architectural formalism in favor of a simple
of Literacy," in Goody, ed., Literacy in and natural, reasonable way of building.
Traditional Societies (Cambridge: Cambridge One brought nothing new to such a move-
University Press, 1968), pp.30, 67. ment; everything had existed for centuries in
4. J. Le Goff, Storia e memoria (History and the vernacular architecture of the small town

Memory) (Turin: Einaudi, 19 77), S. Rendali and rural landscape: . . . where, in earlier
and E. Claman, trans. (New York: Columbia centuries, the country mason had followed
University Press, 1992), p.57. See also A. local traditions in his practice." Translated
Leroi-Gourhan, "Les voies de l'histoire avant in S. Anderson, Hermann Muthesius : Style-
l'écriture," in Le Goff and P. Nora, eds., Architecture and Building-Art: Transformations
Faire de l'histoire (Paris: Gallimard, 1974), of Architecture in the Nineteenth Century and

Vol.i, pp.93-105. its Present Condition (Santa Monica, CA: The

5. Goody and Watt, "The Consequences of Getty Center for the History of Art and the
Literacy," pp.67-68. Humanities; and Chicago: The University of
6. D.F. Eickelman, "The Art of Memory: Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 96-97. The origi-
Islamic Education and Its Social nal was Muthesius, Stilarchitektur und

Reproduction," Comparative Studies in Society Baukunst (Mülheim/ Ruhr: K.

and History, No.XX (1978), pp.485-516. Schimmelpfeng, 1902), p.6i.
7. S. Al-Hathloul, The Arab-Muslim City:
Tradition, Continuity and Change in the Physical
Environment (Riyadh: Dar Al Sahan, 1996).
8. In accounting for the "conquest and eradica-
tion of memory by history," Pierre Nora seems

to glorify the conditions of "so-called primitive

or archaic societies," and to show too little

appreciation for the critical dimension of his-

tory in modern societies. See his "Between
Memory and History," Representations,

N0.XXVI (Spring 1989), pp.7-26.

9. A. Savas, "Between Document and
Monument: Architectural Artifacts in the

Age of Specialized Institutions," Ph.D. diss.,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994.

This content downloaded from

129.93.169.156 on Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:09:18 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms