What is the difference between Ethnoarchitecture and Vernacular Architecture?
Conventionally it is acknowledged that the phenomenon of traditional architecture is actually two phenomena, one being “vernacular” or “urban” or “global” and the other “traditional,” or “indigenous”, or “ethno.” In other words, there is mobile architecture everywhere around the world, but there is only one specific form of mobile architecture called “tambo” in a specific area, that being the Upper Amazon. Some could alternatively say that vernacular architecture refers to all the expressions of architecture without architects in the world, whereas ethnoarchitecture refers to those expressions related to areas of “ethnic interest” (i.e. indigenous cultures). In other words, vernacular architecture is urban and ethnoarchitecture is rural. That differentiation could be fairly acceptable in the American context, where the term vernacular architecture is mainly used to designate the American domestic architecture. In any case, there is not any irreconcilable difference, and both terms can
