Housing and Community Development

The term vernacular is derived from the Latin vernaculus, meaning "domestic, native, indigenous";

In linguistics, vernacular refers to language use particular to a time, place or group. In architecture, it refers to that type of architecture which is indigenous to a specific time or place (not imported or copied from elsewhere).

It is most often applied to residential buildings.

Thanks to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular_architecture