**2. Identity: people, culture, place, and architecture**

In recent years, the issue of cultural identity in contemporary architecture has been attached a pivotal role in creating uniqueness and local identity in a competitive environment at a global level.

#### *Sustainability and Vernacular Architecture: Rethinking What Identity Is DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82025*

 The term "identity," as defined in the Oxford English Living Dictionary, is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is; the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is [1]. In Cambridge Dictionary, identity establishes or indicates who or what (someone or something) is, who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that make them different from others [2]. In other words, identity means being unique and distinguished from others, and this can be applied to a thing, person, and group of people, society, country, or even nation.

 Several natural and human factors contribute in defining "identity" such as place (region, geography, topography, and climate), people (society, community), and culture (traditions, customs, language, religion, and artifacts). It is essential to discuss these factors and how they are related to each other and how this was reflected in architecture.

Culture is one of the major factors that defines identity as it is related to people that created this culture. Vibhavari Jani, in her edited book "Diversity in Design: Perspectives from the Non-Western World," suggests that culture refers to: "… distinctive way of life that represents values, customs, and norms of a group of people who pass these traditional values from one generation to the next. This learned way of life then reflects upon social, political, educational, and economic institutions; value and belief systems; and languages and artifacts" [3].

 Culture, as a human product, is profoundly related to a place or region where natural environment has a great impact on people. Place describes the complex interplay of climatological, biological, geological, and topographical features that create the differences we see around us [4]. Place identity defines who people are and defends people from settings that threaten who they are or want to be [5]. The identity of a place can be seen as part of one's self-identity derived from everyday experiences of places and the built environment. The sense of place identity is related to the meaning of that place to someone as "…place makes memories cohere in complex ways" [6].

Christian Norberg-Schulz, the architect, author, educator, and architectural theorist, relates cultural identity to its place through architecture as the manifestation of people and the ambient environment. In Norberg-Schulz's writings runs, "…the unquestioned assumption that architecture has an identifiable 'essence,' the understanding of which is essential both to the discourse and practice of architecture" [7]. In his book "Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture," Norberg-Schulz states that "Human identity presupposes the identity of place." The "essence" of architecture is defined accordingly: The basic act of architecture is therefore to understand the "vocation" of the place [8].

Architecture, vernacular in particular, is a product of people, place, and culture; it is one facets of identity. Symbolism of architecture can be related to the realization of identity personally and socially. This accretion has reached the level where "architecture as identity" became the equivalent to "architecture as space" and "architecture as a language" ([9], P. 137). Architecture, as the most obvious physical artifacts of any culture, has the most to draw from and respond to the uniqueness of place [4].
