Urban Fusion

Nowadays we are well used to hearing about the clash of cultures, or the battle between the traditional and modern, old and young, but for INTBAU (the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism) the two are not only compatible, but actually form the basis for our philosophy of bringing a people-centric approach to our built environment. It is the fusion of the wisdom of previous times and the ambition, technology and potential of today which makes this an exciting and ever-growing area of thinking.

Founded in 2001 by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, INTBAU is a global network dedicated to creating better places to live. It brings together tradition-oriented practitioners from around the world who, at that time, felt (quite understandably) felt that they were part of a disconnected, lonely, and unfashionable minority, but thankfully much has changed.

HRH The Prince of Wales speaking to winners of INTBAU’s 2016 Excellence Awards at Clarence House in London

Over the last nearly 20 years, global thinking of where people can find solutions to some of the issues of modern-day urban living have encouraged many to look at traditional ways of building, designing and planning the environment in a way which does not stifle creativity, but does encourage harmony between people and place.

As a result, INTBAU has grown from its base in London to include 34 national chapters and over 7,000 members. The network brings together methods, forms, climates, and contexts as diverse as urban extensions to Guatemala City, Chicago’s grand civic buildings, shingle style houses in Nova Scotia, reconstructed town squares in Dresden and Warsaw, rammed earth villages in Morocco, floating mudhifs in Iraq, and the hutongs of Beijing.

A workshop in M’Hamid El Ghizlane, Morocco, organised by Terrachidia and INTBAU

His Royal Highness’s vision, first articulated in his 1989 book A Vision of Britain, was embraced by similar enthusiasts and resulted in INTBAU’s formation. His thinking continues to inspire the network today: that our living traditions of designing and building represent a profound modernity beyond fickle novelty, and have an essential inheritance to offer to the future. Simply put, the past can be adapted for the present to create the future’s resilient, adaptable, and (yes) beautiful buildings, towns, and cities: a fusion of the best for a brighter future.

INTBAU’s purpose is to nurture and expand the global community who design, make, maintain, study, and enjoy traditional buildings and places. We put this into practice by organising workshops, summer schools, our biennial World Congress, competitions, scholarships, and awards. The reach and diversity of the network means the range of our projects has been able to become equally great.

Panel discussion at the 2018 World Congress at the Royal Society of Arts

In 2019, INTBAU held its annual summer schools in traditional architecture in Engelsberg, Sweden and Cantabria, Spain. Students between the ages of 18 and 63 from over 20 countries attended, in some cases driven by gaps and lacks in their architectural education, and in others to inspire a mid-career change, to improve drawing skills, or to enhance understanding and appreciation of architecture, design, and what gives a particular place its unique built identity.

Students on the 2019 Engelsberg Summer School in Classical Architecture

Also in 2019, we opened the INTBAU Training Centre in Makli, Pakistan, alongside a series of workshops and talks focused on zero carbon architecture – that is, structures which have no embodied energy, and which are carbon neutral to maintain.

Makli is the site of the largest necropolis in the Muslim world and has, since 2000, become a ‘zero carbon campus’ for marginalised communities living in the surrounding area of Sindh, about 60km east of Karachi. The INTBAU chapter in Pakistan is chaired by Yasmeen Lari, 2020 Jane Drew Prize winner, who has developed localised, circular economies which provide sources of livelihood and access to safe and resilient housing and community buildings constructed using nothing more than bamboo, earth, lime, and thatch. As soon as it is safe to do so, our Training Centre will host groups from Pakistan and abroad, to learn zero carbon methods of construction from the previously destitute individuals who are now ambassadors for a more enlightened architecture than exists in many hyper-developed parts of the world.

The INTBAU Training Centre in Makli, Pakistan

Twenty years ago when INTBAU was founded, the word ‘traditional’ was deeply unfashionable. Though the term is not entirely unproblematic, it is enjoying something of a renaissance. Call it the result of growing environmental concerns, a reaction against the homogenising force of globalisation, or an awareness that (as Churchill once said) our buildings really do shape us whether for good or for ill – ‘traditional’ is now very often seen as a companion to ‘sustainable’, drawing from and adapting local knowledge and techniques to create buildings and places that are better for the health of people and the planet.

For an organisation focused on the future, education and engagement of the next generation in craft, architecture, and design is crucial. We offer awards, scholarships, and apprenticeships to young practitioners, which is a start, but more can always be done. By continuing to work as widely and as worldwide as possible, the hope is that more and more students and professionals at the beginning of their career will join us, and feel supported in their ambition to make the world a better place to live for everyone.

2018’s Excellence Award winners, with the author pictured far right

INTBAU is currently holding a virtual exhibition of responses to life in lockdown from around the world, and we would love to have you take part. You can also participate in our Summer Series of Zoom talks, featuring up-and-coming woodcarvers, hempcrete experts, world-renowned urban designers, and architects working everywhere from Boston to Beirut.

Finally INTBAU is not just for the experts, the architects, the professionals, but for everyone who has an interest in the world around them. Join us and you too can be part of INTBAU’s next decades.

Harriet Wennberg
Executive Director, INTBAU
https://www.intbau.org/
Instagram: @intbau
Facebook: @INTBAU.Central
Twitter: @INTBAU

Harriet Wennberg is Executive Director of INTBAU. She has a Master’s in Architectural History, is a trustee of the Georgian Group and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

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Urban Fusion

Nowadays we are well used to hearing about the clash of cultures, or the battle between the traditional and modern, old and young, but for INTBAU (the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism) the two are not only compatible, but actually form the basis for our philosophy of bringing a people-centric approach to our built environment. It is the fusion of the wisdom of previous times and the ambition, technology and potential of today which makes this an exciting and ever-growing area of thinking.

Founded in 2001 by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, INTBAU is a global network dedicated to creating better places to live. It brings together tradition-oriented practitioners from around the world who, at that time, felt (quite understandably) felt that they were part of a disconnected, lonely, and unfashionable minority, but thankfully much has changed.

HRH The Prince of Wales speaking to winners of INTBAU’s 2016 Excellence Awards at Clarence House in London

Over the last nearly 20 years, global thinking of where people can find solutions to some of the issues of modern-day urban living have encouraged many to look at traditional ways of building, designing and planning the environment in a way which does not stifle creativity, but does encourage harmony between people and place.

As a result, INTBAU has grown from its base in London to include 34 national chapters and over 7,000 members. The network brings together methods, forms, climates, and contexts as diverse as urban extensions to Guatemala City, Chicago’s grand civic buildings, shingle style houses in Nova Scotia, reconstructed town squares in Dresden and Warsaw, rammed earth villages in Morocco, floating mudhifs in Iraq, and the hutongs of Beijing.

A workshop in M’Hamid El Ghizlane, Morocco, organised by Terrachidia and INTBAU

His Royal Highness’s vision, first articulated in his 1989 book A Vision of Britain, was embraced by similar enthusiasts and resulted in INTBAU’s formation. His thinking continues to inspire the network today: that our living traditions of designing and building represent a profound modernity beyond fickle novelty, and have an essential inheritance to offer to the future. Simply put, the past can be adapted for the present to create the future’s resilient, adaptable, and (yes) beautiful buildings, towns, and cities: a fusion of the best for a brighter future.

INTBAU’s purpose is to nurture and expand the global community who design, make, maintain, study, and enjoy traditional buildings and places. We put this into practice by organising workshops, summer schools, our biennial World Congress, competitions, scholarships, and awards. The reach and diversity of the network means the range of our projects has been able to become equally great.

Panel discussion at the 2018 World Congress at the Royal Society of Arts

In 2019, INTBAU held its annual summer schools in traditional architecture in Engelsberg, Sweden and Cantabria, Spain. Students between the ages of 18 and 63 from over 20 countries attended, in some cases driven by gaps and lacks in their architectural education, and in others to inspire a mid-career change, to improve drawing skills, or to enhance understanding and appreciation of architecture, design, and what gives a particular place its unique built identity.

Students on the 2019 Engelsberg Summer School in Classical Architecture

Also in 2019, we opened the INTBAU Training Centre in Makli, Pakistan, alongside a series of workshops and talks focused on zero carbon architecture – that is, structures which have no embodied energy, and which are carbon neutral to maintain.

Makli is the site of the largest necropolis in the Muslim world and has, since 2000, become a ‘zero carbon campus’ for marginalised communities living in the surrounding area of Sindh, about 60km east of Karachi. The INTBAU chapter in Pakistan is chaired by Yasmeen Lari, 2020 Jane Drew Prize winner, who has developed localised, circular economies which provide sources of livelihood and access to safe and resilient housing and community buildings constructed using nothing more than bamboo, earth, lime, and thatch. As soon as it is safe to do so, our Training Centre will host groups from Pakistan and abroad, to learn zero carbon methods of construction from the previously destitute individuals who are now ambassadors for a more enlightened architecture than exists in many hyper-developed parts of the world.

The INTBAU Training Centre in Makli, Pakistan

Twenty years ago when INTBAU was founded, the word ‘traditional’ was deeply unfashionable. Though the term is not entirely unproblematic, it is enjoying something of a renaissance. Call it the result of growing environmental concerns, a reaction against the homogenising force of globalisation, or an awareness that (as Churchill once said) our buildings really do shape us whether for good or for ill – ‘traditional’ is now very often seen as a companion to ‘sustainable’, drawing from and adapting local knowledge and techniques to create buildings and places that are better for the health of people and the planet.

For an organisation focused on the future, education and engagement of the next generation in craft, architecture, and design is crucial. We offer awards, scholarships, and apprenticeships to young practitioners, which is a start, but more can always be done. By continuing to work as widely and as worldwide as possible, the hope is that more and more students and professionals at the beginning of their career will join us, and feel supported in their ambition to make the world a better place to live for everyone.

2018’s Excellence Award winners, with the author pictured far right

INTBAU is currently holding a virtual exhibition of responses to life in lockdown from around the world, and we would love to have you take part. You can also participate in our Summer Series of Zoom talks, featuring up-and-coming woodcarvers, hempcrete experts, world-renowned urban designers, and architects working everywhere from Boston to Beirut.

Finally INTBAU is not just for the experts, the architects, the professionals, but for everyone who has an interest in the world around them. Join us and you too can be part of INTBAU’s next decades.

Harriet Wennberg
Executive Director, INTBAU
https://www.intbau.org/
Instagram: @intbau
Facebook: @INTBAU.Central
Twitter: @INTBAU

Harriet Wennberg is Executive Director of INTBAU. She has a Master’s in Architectural History, is a trustee of the Georgian Group and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

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