Bücher von Philippe Yavo

The desire to revitalise indigenous architecture and the built environment through socio-cultural, political and bio-physical relevance has created a strong need for the understanding of cultures and traditional built environments, especially in the developing countries. This book aims to fill the gap in understanding indigenous knowledge in relation to the production and maintenance of traditional architecture and settlements. This can be achieved by examining how such knowledge is depicted and communicated by the traditional master builder in the absence of written language; as well as exploring the forms, quantities and measurements, structural processes, thermal control and waterproofing systems used by the builders, and ecological resource management. The synthetic process so characteristic of the work of the great master builders of yesterday should be the answer to present day architectural problems. The future generation of architects has much to learn from both past and present-day traditional builders. The study also suggests a wide range of possible strategies to mainstream technical know-how of indigenous knowledge systems.

The traditional architecture of Lobi builders, decorators and their sculpture in Cote d¿Ivoire is studied and interpreted. Specifically, supervision, division of labour and specialisation are investigated. In particular, the usefulness of the traditional builder, his contribution to the society and in the community is determined. The prevailing architectural form that is studied in the dissertation is that of dispersed mud-walled settlement.The purpose of this book is to provide records of Lobi¿s buildings that we measured and analysed in the course of our exploration and our fieldwork. We aim to draw scholars¿ attention to Lobi¿s cultural achievements and to the appreciation of their architecture. We believe that the Lobi¿s vernacular building has, to date, remained unnoticed, and run the risk of being forgotten.In this light, it would appear that, in order to apprehend the aims of Lobi¿s building and to understand and appreciate its tradition, one should consider investigating relationships between peoples and buildings and consider the conceptual and perceptual in the decision-making processes as far as shelter is concerned.