Conventional Methods Meet the Contemporary Scientific Adaptations in Vernacular Architecture: A Curious Comparability

Vernacular architecture has evolved into appropriate building methods for each type of culture and climate owing to over hundreds of years of experience. Because of the proper use of environmental design strategies and compatibility with social and cultural norms vernacular architecture has successfully created a desirable indoor environment with minimal energy consumption. Modern technology is all about efficiency in science and velocity in implementation. Socio-cultural consciousness or indigenous knowledge systems nourished with beliefs and practices in the vernacular building traditions are less acknowledged by modern science as imperative. In this context, the present study has shown the direction, i.e. how and the way, in which, vernacular architecture is crucial in representing modern scientific knowledge in constructing buildings. Remarkably, rich repository of traditional knowledge systems, especially techniques and practices involved in creating living- friendly interiors in the abodes of pre-modern Sri Lanka, are analogous with modern technical applications. The body of the article defines and analyses how traditional building techniques illustrate modern technological adaptations and the symmetry between traditional practices and modern technology as appeared in vernacular architecture, particularly, in heat transfer and damp prevention mechanisms used in dwellings in the sixteenth and nineteenth century Sri Lanka. The findings achieved in the research illustrate that the vernacular architecture which represents an eco-friendly organic constructing system mirrored modern building techniques to fit with the natural environment and cause less harm to the built environment.