A Summary of Prospects for a Critical Regionalism

Kenneth Frampton starts his thematic mapping of “critical regionalism” with the phenomenological aspiration for the duality between “national culture” and civilization. He raises the questions of Paul Ricoeur that how to be modern and return to sources and how to revive an old civilization and take part in universal civilization. After distinguishing between critical regionalism and the vernacular, Frampton argues that critical regionalism continues sporadic flourish in Europe and America.

The Catalonian nationalist revival was a typical example of exact anti-centrist regionalism. And some architects and their works are referred as the evidence. The New York-based architect Raimund Abraham shows latent regionalist connotations in his theoretical work, and the veteran Mexican architect Luis Barragán, whose finest houses are topography, is also in opposition to the invasion of privacy in the modern world. Regionalism also shows itself in other parts of Americas, such as Brazil, Argentina, the west coast of the United States and so on.

In Europe, the post-war continent, some regional architects had made the middle ground their originals in the first decade after the war. There has always been strong tendencies of regionalism. The provincial culture will strongly influence the work of architects. And Mario Botta is a typical example for that; he emphasizes building the site and believes that the loss of the historical city cannot be recovered, which reflect a regionalism of him.

Tadao Ando, one of the most regionally conscious architects in Japan, based on Osaka but not Tokyo, comes to critical regionalism closely in his theoretical writings. As for architecture in Greece, Tzonis believes that critical regionalism began in Greece with the thirties projects of Dimitri Pikionis and Aris Konstantinidis. He also argues critical regionalism is a bridge of future humanistic architecture.

A isolated central principle of critical regionalism is a commitment to place rather than space, but the both determine the regionalism of architecture.