Locations of the global in traditional architecture

Abstract

Traditional architecture faces multiple challenges; one of the most obvious comes from globalization. So far this phenomenon has been detected from its most visible face, the homogenization processes that have been imposing themselves in traditional landscapes. For this reason, a series of International Chapters have been triggered that put the focus of attention on this reality and the need to find out adapted responses. However, there are other ways where the processes sneak in that may be unnoticed. The widespread character of globalization in multiple dimensions of life requires a clear detection of them before being able to propose a mode of action. Therefore, as a first step, the main theories that have analysed them linking them to traditional architecture will be exposed, to later seek from a field little explored until now, the anthropology of architectural construction, the other subtle ways in which global processes are introduced with less obvious visual impacts but with the same potential risk of loss of cultural diversity, distinctive of traditional architecture. Through a qualitative study of the comparative nature of constructive solutions used in the north of Portugal, these subtle ways of globalization´s proceeding will be studied in this specific location, converging the existing theories about the causes that generate them. Finally, in the last section, alternative solutions to this challenge will be proposed, scrutinizing them from the multiple dimensions that intervene in order to verify the feasibility of them.