Energy efficiency principles in Portuguese vernacular architecture

Abstract

Vernacular architecture is characterized by formally expressing several constraints – geographical, climatic and economic – from the places where it is. In its plurality, it manifests several constraints from places and communities who built and inhabit them. Those constraints are reflected in regional differentiation of the strategies used to mitigate the climate effects. Portugal, despite the small size of the country, is profuse in these manifestations of architecture. The strategies adopted in these buildings have potential to evolve and to be adapted to contemporaneity. Future should seek to integrate tradition and modernity, in order to explore new aesthetics and functional buildings. In this sense, Portuguese vernacular architecture has a knowledge that matters to be studied and classified from a sustainability point of view. When world seeks for cleaner energy and more sustainable buildings, it is pertinent to revisit the past in order to understand these forms of construction intrinsic to places, shaped over the time to deal with scarce resources.