Evidence exists that by 1964, in the Upper Amazon, the vernacular building expressions of the Sieco_pai (Secoya) indigenous people had changed already eight times throughout their history, and they would continue to change at least fifteen more during the forty years following the MOMA exhibition.
"Architecture Without Architects" was a groundbreaking event in that it promoted the discussion about local building in the context of international architecture, and we have to give Rudofsky credit for that. However, by centering attention on the aesthetic value of those apparently simple and innocent huts, rather than on the complex socio-environmental phenomena that shape this building, the exhibition unintentionally reaffirmed a secular stereotype, and officially coined the architectural version of the myth of the noble savage.
Although Rudofsky's patronizing view has been challenged since the exhibition, forty years later this architectural preconception is still strong in the mind of many. This anniversary could be a good opportunity to complete the task of contesting it. Vernacular architecture changes, and it changes because economy, environment and society change. It also changes because it is normal in human nature to change. Rather than ignoring this fact and focusing only on the sexiest stage of a historical development, we must look at change because in the understanding of what triggers it, we learn about the complex problems that affect the world today, and that also concerns, or at least should concern, architecture.
 | For more information refer to Bernard Rudofsky's Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture |
Gabriel Arboleda is currently living in Philadelphia and is developing an online database of vernacular architecture.
