Critical regionalism is an approach to
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of identity of the
International Style, but also rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of
Postmodern architecture
Postmodern architecture is a style or movement which emerged in the 1960s as a reaction against the austerity, formality, and lack of variety of modern architecture, particularly in the international style advocated by Philip Johnson and Henry- ...
. The stylings of critical regionalism seek to provide an architecture rooted in the modern tradition, but tied to geographical and cultural context. Critical regionalism is not simply
regionalism in the sense of
vernacular architecture
Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...
. It is a progressive approach to design that seeks to mediate between the global and the local languages of architecture.
The phrase "critical regionalism" was first presented in 1981, in ‘The Grid and the Pathway,’ an essay published in ''Architecture in Greece,'' by the architectural theorists
Alexander Tzonis
Alexander Tzonis (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Τζώνης; born November 8, 1937) is a Greek-born architect, author, and researcher.
He has made contributions to architectural theory, history and design cognition, bringing together scientific an ...
and
Liane Lefaivre
Liane Lefaivre, a Canadian and an Austrian, is o-Professor (Professor Ordinaria, that is with a chair and tenure) of Architectural History and Theory at the University of Applied Art in Vienna Austria, now retired.
Background
Lefaivre completed ...
and, with a slightly different meaning, by the historian-theorist
Kenneth Frampton
Kenneth Brian Frampton (born 20 November 1930) is a British architect, critic and historian. He is the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York. He has be ...
. Sri Lankan Architect
Minnette De Silva was one of the pioneers in practicing this architecture style in the 1950s and termed it 'Regional Modernism'.
Critical Regionalists thus hold that both modern and post-modern architecture are "deeply problematic".
Kenneth Frampton
In "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points for an architecture of resistance", Frampton recalls
Paul Ricoeur
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
's "how to become modern and to return to sources; how to revive an old, dormant civilization and take part in universal civilization". According to Frampton's proposal, critical regionalism should adopt modern architecture, critically, for its universal progressive qualities but at the same time value should be placed on the geographical context of the building. Emphasis, Frampton says, should be on topography, climate, light; on tectonic form rather than on scenography (i.e. painting theatrical scenery) and should be on the sense of touch rather than visual sense. Frampton draws on
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
for his argument.
Two examples Frampton briefly discusses are
Jørn Utzon
Jørn Oberg Utzon, , Hon. FAIA (; 9 April 191829 November 2008) was a Danish architect. He was most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia, completed in 1973. When it was declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, Utzon ...
and
Alvar Aalto
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, see ...
. In Frampton's view, Utzon's
Bagsværd Church
Bagsværd Church is a Lutheran church in Bagsværd on the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed in 1968 by Jørn Utzon, it was completed in 1976.[pagoda
A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...](_blank)
roof (i.e. world culture). In the case of Aalto, Frampton discusses the red brick
Säynätsalo Town Hall
The Säynätsalo Town Hall ( fi, Säynätsalon kunnantalo) is a multifunction building complex, consisting of two main buildings organised around a centralised courtyard; a U-shaped council chamber and town hall with administrative offices and a ...
(1952), where, he argues, there is a resistance to universal technology and vision, affected by using the tactile qualities of the building's materials. He notes, for instance, feeling the contrast between the friction of the brick surface of the stairs and the springy wooden floor of the council chamber.
In addition to his own writings on the topic, Frampton has furthered the intellectual reach of these ideas through contributions, in the form of introductions, prefaces and forewords, written for publications on architects and architectural practices that conform with the ethics of critical regionalism.
File:Bagsværd Church interior July 2007.jpg, Bagsværd Church
Bagsværd Church is a Lutheran church in Bagsværd on the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed in 1968 by Jørn Utzon, it was completed in 1976.[Jørn Utzon
Jørn Oberg Utzon, , Hon. FAIA (; 9 April 191829 November 2008) was a Danish architect. He was most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia, completed in 1973. When it was declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, Utzon ...](_blank)
in 1968
File:SaynatsaloTownHall4.jpg, Säynätsalo Town Hall
The Säynätsalo Town Hall ( fi, Säynätsalon kunnantalo) is a multifunction building complex, consisting of two main buildings organised around a centralised courtyard; a U-shaped council chamber and town hall with administrative offices and a ...
(1952), Finland
William J. R. Curtis and Suha Ozkan
There have been two different perceptions of Regionalism in architecture. One of which is of Western writers, like
Curtis
Curtis or Curtiss is a common English given name and surname of Anglo-Norman origin from the Old French ''curteis'' ( Modern French ''courtois'') which derived from the Spanish Cortés (of which Cortez is a variation) and the Portuguese and Ga ...
, whose definitions are not encompassing enough to analyse architectural styles especially in the last two centuries in the Islamic countries, like Iran. However, Ozkan's definition of Regionalism is more objective.
Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre
According to
Alexander Tzonis
Alexander Tzonis (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Τζώνης; born November 8, 1937) is a Greek-born architect, author, and researcher.
He has made contributions to architectural theory, history and design cognition, bringing together scientific an ...
and
Liane Lefaivre
Liane Lefaivre, a Canadian and an Austrian, is o-Professor (Professor Ordinaria, that is with a chair and tenure) of Architectural History and Theory at the University of Applied Art in Vienna Austria, now retired.
Background
Lefaivre completed ...
, critical regionalism need not directly draw from the context; rather elements can be stripped of context but used in unfamiliar ways. Here the aim is to make evident a disruption and loss of place, that is already a ''
fait accompli
Many words in the English vocabulary are of French origin, most coming from the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman Conquest, before the language settled into what became Modern Engli ...
'', through reflection and self-evaluation.
Critical regionalist architects
![Alexander Tzonis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Alexander_Tzonis.jpg)
In addition to Aalto and Utzon, the following architects have used Critical Regionalism (in the Frampton sense) in their work:
Álvaro Siza Vieira
Álvaro Joaquim de Melo Siza Vieira (born 25 June 1933) is a Portuguese architect, and architectural educator. He is internationally known as Álvaro Siza () and in Portugal as Siza Vieira ().
Early life and education
Siza was born in Matosin ...
,
Studio Granda,
Mario Botta
Mario Botta (born 1 April 1943) is a Swiss architect.
Career
Botta designed his first building, a two-family house at Morbio Superiore in Ticino, at age 16. He graduated from the Università Iuav di Venezia (1969). While the arrangements of spa ...
,
Eduardo Souto de Moura
Eduardo Elísio Machado Souto de Moura (; born 25 July 1952), better known as Eduardo Souto de Moura, is a Portuguese architect who was the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2011 and the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2013. Along with Ferna ...
, Mahesh Naik, Sahil Ahmed,
Mazharul Islam
Muzharul Islam (25 December 1923 – 15 July 2012) was a Bangladeshi architect, urban planner, educator and activist. He is considered as the Grand Master of regional modernism in South Asia. Islam is the pioneer of modern architecture in Ban ...
,
B. V. Doshi
Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi OAL (born 26 August 1927) is an Indian architect. He is considered to be an important figure of Indian architecture and noted for his contributions to the evolution of architectural discourse in India. Having worked ...
,
Max Strang
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
,
Charles Correa
Charles Mark Correa (1 September 1930 – 16 June 2015) was an Indian architect and urban planner. Credited with the creation of modern architecture in post-Independent India, he was celebrated for his sensitivity to the needs of the urban p ...
,
Christopher Benninger,
Alvaro Siza,
Jorge Ferreira Chaves,
Rafael Moneo
José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born 9 May 1937) is a Spanish architect. He won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2003 and La Biennale's Golden Lion in 2021.
Biography
Born in Tudela, Spain, Moneo studied at ...
,
Geoffrey Bawa
Deshamanya Geoffrey Manning Bawa, FRIBA (23 July 1919 – 27 May 2003) was a Sri Lankan architect. He was among the most influential Asian architects of his generation.
Early life
Geoffrey Bawa was born in Colombo on 23 July 1919, the young ...
,
Raj Rewal
Raj Rewal (born 24 November 1934 in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India) is a leading Indian architect. Education
Rewal lived in Delhi and Shimla from 1934–1951. He attended Harcourt Butler higher secondary school. Between 1951-1954 he attended the De ...
, Dharmesh Vadavala,
Ashok "Bihari" Lall Neelkanth Chhaya (Kaka), P.K.Das, Soumitro Ghosh, Nisha Mathew Ghosh,
Ngô Viết Thụ
Ngô Viết Thụ (17 September 1927 – 3 September 2000) was a Vietnamese architect.
Ngô Viết Thụ was born on 17 September 1927 in Thừa Thiên, French Indochina. He married Võ Thị Cơ and had eight children, one of whom, Dr. Ngô Vi ...
,
Tadao Ando, Mack Scogin / Merrill Elam,
Glenn Murcutt
Glenn Marcus Murcutt AO (born 25 July 1936) is an Australian architect and winner of the 1992 Alvar Aalto Medal, the 2002 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the 2009 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the 2021 Praemium Imperiale. Gle ...
,
Johnsen Schmaling Architects,
Ken Yeang
Ken Yeang (6 October 1948) is an architect, ecologist, planner and author from Malaysia, best known for his ecological architecture and ecomasterplans that have a distinctive green aesthetic. He pioneered an ecology-based architecture (since 1 ...
, Philippe Madec,
William S.W. Lim, Tay Kheng Soon,
WOHA
WOHA is a Singaporean multinational architectural industrial design firm. First established in 1994 by Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell, its name is derived from the initial letters of the founders’ surnames. Based out of Singapore ...
Architects (Singapore),
Juhani Pallasmaa
Juhani Uolevi Pallasmaa (born 14 September 1936 in Hämeenlinna, Finland) is a Finnish architect and former professor of architecture and dean at the Helsinki University of Technology. Among the many academic and civic positions he has held are ...
,
Wang Shu
Wang Shu (, born 4 November 1963)[Juha Leiviskä
Juha Ilmari Leiviskä (born 17 March 1936 in Helsinki) is a prominent Finnish architect and designer. He is especially known for his churches and other sacral buildings.
Life and career
The son of engineer Toivo Ilmari Leiviskä and teacher ...](_blank)
,
Peter Zumthor
Peter Zumthor (; born 26 April 1943) is a Swiss architect whose work is frequently described as uncompromising and minimalist. Though managing a relatively small firm, he is the winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize and 2013 RIBA Royal Gold Medal.
E ...
,
Carlo Scarpa
Carlo Scarpa (2 June 1906 – 28 November 1978) was an Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape and the history of Venetian culture, and by Japan. Scarpa translated his interests in history, regionalism, invention, and the tec ...
, Miller , Hull, Tan Hock Beng. Peter Stutchbury, Lake Flato,
Rick Joy
Rick Joy (born 1958 Maine, United States) is an American architect. Rick Joy is Principal of Studio Rick Joy, an architecture and planning firm established in 1993 in Tucson, Arizona.
Early life
Joy was born in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine. He studied ...
,
Tom Kundig
Tom Kundig (born 1954) is an American architect and principal in the Seattle-based firm Olson Kundig Architects. He has won numerous professional honors.
In 2015, Princeton Architectural Press released ''Tom Kundig: Works'', a collection of Kun ...
, and
Sverre Fehn. Suzana & Dimitris Antonakakis are the two Greek architects for whom the term was first used by
Alexander Tzonis
Alexander Tzonis (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Τζώνης; born November 8, 1937) is a Greek-born architect, author, and researcher.
He has made contributions to architectural theory, history and design cognition, bringing together scientific an ...
and
Liane Lefaivre
Liane Lefaivre, a Canadian and an Austrian, is o-Professor (Professor Ordinaria, that is with a chair and tenure) of Architectural History and Theory at the University of Applied Art in Vienna Austria, now retired.
Background
Lefaivre completed ...
.
Critical regionalism has developed into unique sub-styles across the world.
Glenn Murcutt
Glenn Marcus Murcutt AO (born 25 July 1936) is an Australian architect and winner of the 1992 Alvar Aalto Medal, the 2002 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the 2009 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the 2021 Praemium Imperiale. Gle ...
's simple vernacular architectural style is representative of an Australian variant to critical regionalism. In
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
,
WOHA
WOHA is a Singaporean multinational architectural industrial design firm. First established in 1994 by Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell, its name is derived from the initial letters of the founders’ surnames. Based out of Singapore ...
has developed a unique architectural vocabulary based on an appreciation of the local climate and culture.
Criticism
Although supportive of Critical Regionalism attempt to adapt design to local climate, site conditions, and locally-available materials, considering it an improvement in relation to the
International Style of Modernism,
architecture theorist Nikos Salingaros
Nikos Angelos Salingaros ( el, Νίκος Άγγελος Σαλίγκαρος; born 1952) is a mathematician and polymath known for his work on urban theory, architectural theory, complexity theory, and design philosophy. He has been a close ...
criticizes its anti-regional and anti-traditional tendencies derived from
Critical Theory
A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
. Nikos Salingaros states that "In practice, critical regionalism willfully perpetuates the form languages of Modernism. Our understanding, however, is that regionalism has to protect and re-use traditional form languages. True regionalism has to free itself from any global form language imposed from above, and from any forces of uniformization and conformity."
In cultural studies
Subsequently, the phrase "critical regionalism" has also been used in cultural studies, literary studies, and political theory, specifically in the work of
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Lite ...
. In her 2007 work "Who Sings the Nation-State?", co-authored with
Judith Butler
Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler ...
, Spivak proposes a deconstructive alternative to nationalism that is predicated on the
deconstruction
The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...
of borders and rigid national identity.
Douglas Reichert Powell's book ''Critical Regionalism: Connecting Politics and Culture in the American Landscape'' (2007) traces the trajectory of the term critical regionalism from its original use in architectural theory to its inclusion in literary, cultural, and political studies and proposes a methodology based on the intersection of those fields.
See also
*
Contextual architecture
Contextual architecture, also known as Contextualism is a philosophical approach in architectural theory that refers to the designing of a structure in response to the literal and abstract characteristics of the environment in which it is built. ...
*
Complementary architecture
Complementary architecture is a movement in contemporary architecture promoting architectural practice rooted in comprehensive understanding of context, aiming to contribute to the environment in such a way as to continue and improve or emphasise i ...
*
Critical theory
A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
*
Neo-Historicism
Notes
References
* Vincent B. Canizaro," Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition," (2007) Princeton Architectural Press.
* Kenneth Frampton, "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance", in ''The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture'' (1983) edited by Hal Foster, Bay Press, Seattle.
* Stylianos Giamarelos (2022). ''Resisting Postmodern Architecture: Critical Regionalism before Globalisation''. London: UCL Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800081338
* Alex Tzonis and Liliane Lefaivre, "The grid and the pathway. An introduction to the work of Dimitris and Suzana Antonakakis", ''Architecture in Greece'' (1981) 15, Athens.
* Judith Butler and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Who Sings the Nation-State?: Language, Politics, Belonging" (2007), Seagull Books.
* Douglas Powell, ''Critical Regionalism: Connecting Politics and Culture in the American Landscape'' (2007), University of North Carolina Press.
*
Thorsten Botz-Bornstein
Thorsten Botz-Bornstein (born 1964) is a German philosopher and writer specializing in aesthetics and intercultural philosophy.
Biography
Botz-Bornstein was born in Germany in 1964, studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris (Paris I) from ...
, "Is Critical Regionalist Philosophy Possible? Some Meta-Philosophical Considerations" in ''Comparative and Continental Philosophy'' (2010) 2:1.
*
Thorsten Botz-Bornstein
Thorsten Botz-Bornstein (born 1964) is a German philosopher and writer specializing in aesthetics and intercultural philosophy.
Biography
Botz-Bornstein was born in Germany in 1964, studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris (Paris I) from ...
, ''Transcultural Architecture: Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism'' (2015), Ashgate.
* Tom Avermaete, Veronique Patteeuw, Hans Teerds, Lea-Catherine Szacka (eds), ''Oase'' #103: Critical Regionalism Revisited, (2019), .
External links
Critical Analysis of "Towards a Critical Regionalism"The Theoretical Inapplicability of RegionalismAlexander Tzonis Authorised website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Critical Regionalism
Architectural theory
20th-century architectural styles