Professional Documents
Culture Documents
REGIONALISM
Critical regionalism is an approach to architecture 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.
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
It is a progressive approach to design that seeks to mediate between the global
the local languages of architecture.
Alvar Aalto
Säynätsalo Town Hall
1952
The phrase "critical regionalism" was first used by the architectural
theorists Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre and, with a slightly different meaning,
by the historian-theorist Kenneth Frampton.
Critical Regionalists thus hold that both modern and post-modern architecture are
"deeply problematic".
Critical Regionalism is not commonly understood regionalism referring to the local
architectural tradition, not derived from the archetypal sentiments or from direct
opposition to modernism.
TADAO ANDO
Azuma House
Osaka
1976
Fabrica
Benetton Research
Center
Treviso, Włochy
2000
The main problem of critical regionalism is to seek answers to the question of Paul
Ricour:
In addition to Aalto and Utzon, the following architects have used Critical
Regionalism (in the Frampton sense) in their work: Studio Granda, Mario
Botta, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Mahesh Naik, Mazharul Islam, B. V. Doshi, Charles
Correa,Christopher Benninger, Alvaro Siza, Jorge Ferreira Chaves, Rafael
Moneo, Geoffrey Bawa, Raj Rewal, Dharmesh Vadavala, Ashok "Bihari"
Lall Neelkanth Chhaya (Kaka), Soumitro Ghosh, Nisha Mathew Ghosh, Tadao Ando,
Mack Scogin / Merrill Elam, Glenn Murcutt, Ken Yeang, Philippe Madec, William
S.W. Lim, Tay Kheng Soon, Juhani Pallasmaa, Wang Shu, Juha Leiviskä, Peter
Zumthor, Carlo Scarpa, Tan Hock Being. Peter Stutchbury, Lake Flato, Rick Joy, Tom
Kundig, Sverre Fehn, Dimitris & Suzana Antonakakis are the two Greek architects
for whom the term was first used by Tzonis and Lefaivre.
Expo'92
Japan Pavillon
Sevilla
1992
Hyogo
Prefectural
Museum of Art
Kobe
2002
TADAO ANDO
Japanese architect Tadao Ando spent his early years as a professional boxer and
truck driver, until he changed course, taught himself architecture and eventually
became one of the Great Fathers of contemporary architecture.
The first building to bring real attention to Japanese architect Tadao Ando (b.
1941), six years after he founded his studio, was his iconic Azuma House /
Rowhouse in Sumiyoishi, completed in 1976 in Osaka. The small concrete house
took a radical approach toward the city, closing itself completely off and letting the
inhabitant enter an entirely private and beautifully organized microcosmos in the
middle of a bustling city that had, in the public's opinion, grown ugly and full of
houses bereft of charm.
Since then, Ando has completed an almost endless list of buildings both in Japan
and other countries, and his buildings all demonstrate the celebration of classical
beauty: austere, yet complex compositions of geometric shapes, impressive in situ
concrete elements and striking daylight effects are among Ando's trademarks.
It seems that Ando does not do 'subtle', and his grandiose style has made him a
popular designer of religious buildings as well as art museums, including his
comprehensive work at Benesse Art Site Naoshima. Meanwhile, Ando has also
continued to design smaller houses - among others 4x4 House on a beachfront site
in Kobe, completed in 2003.
The self-taught architect learned his first lessons by studying the buildings of Le
Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn, and the inspiration from Western
modernism is evident throughout his work.
During his long and prosperous career, Tadao Ando has received almost every
conceivable prize of architecture, counting among many others the Carlsberg
Architectural Prize (1992), the Pritzker Architecture Prize (1995) and the Gold Medal
of the AIA (2002).
DESIGN PHYLOSOPHIES
Designs is their clean line,and sheer simplicity.
Simple geometric forms have characterized his work over the past three decades.
Ando orchestrates masses and voids, choreographing their interaction with
trademark Tadao Ando precision.
In spite of his consistent use of materials and the elements of pillar, wall and vault,
his various combinations of these elements constantly prove exhilarating and
dynamic.
The materiality of his works is of great importance. Working with smooth-as-silk
concrete, Ando creates spaces using walls which he defines as the most basic
elements of architecture, but also the most enriching.
Honesty of materials is what sets Ando apart from many architects. He does not
veneer, rather he uses the brutal beauty of concrete formwork to texture his
buildings, inside and out.
designs have ushered accurate and moving design concepts and themes by
emulating delightful and moving feelings, which provide people with a good poetic
experience in such spatial structures.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth / Tadao
Ando
Quote about the building - "Space will only have a life when people enter it. So
the important role architecture can play, and that space plays within that
architecture, is to encourage an interaction between people, between people
and the ideas being presented in the paintings and sculpture, and most
importantly between people themselves.“