LECTURE- 03

CRITICAL REGIONALISM
 WHAT IS CRITICAL REGIONALISM?

•You have 10 minutes to research the term

critical regionalism

•You then discuss it with your peer group

WHAT IS CRITICAL REGIONALISM?

Modernism
+
Regionalism
=
Critical Regionalism
WHAT IS CRITICAL REGIONALISM?

Topography

Climate Ornamentation

Critical
Regionalism

Modern
Landscape
Traditions

Local
Materials
 WHAT IS CRITICAL REGIONALISM?

• An approach to architecture that strives to counter the placeless-ness

and lack of identity of the International Style.

• It rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of

Postmodern architecture.

• It is not simply regionalism in the sense of vernacular architecture,

rather a progressive approach to design that seeks to mediate
between the global and the local languages of architecture.

• Critical Regionalism manifests itself as a consciously bounded

architecture, one which rather than emphasizing the building as a free-
standing object places the stress on the territory to be established by
the structure erected on the site. This 'place-form' means that the
architect must recognize the physical boundary of his work as a kind of
temporal limit.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
CRITICAL REGIONALISM?
• Combination of Regional & Modern

• Integration of regional building materials with modern

• Emphasis on topography (consideration of Geographical context,

compatible with the environment)

• Tactility

• Emphasis on Place (not space)

 WHO INTRODUCED THE CONCEPT?
It was first introduced by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre in ‘The
Grid and the Pathway,’ an essay published in Architecture in Greece, and
later more famously presented by Kenneth Frampton, a critique of
modern architecture.

Alexander Tzonis Liane Lefaivre Kenneth Frampton

As put forth by Tzonis and Lefaivre, critical regionalism need not directly
draw from the context, rather elements can be stripped of their context
and used in strange rather than familiar ways.
 WHO INTRODUCED THE CONCEPT?
In the 1980’s, a few architects and theorists were disappointed with the
direction that architecture was taking under the influence of
postmodernism.

Rather than unveiling the historicity of style in their designs, postmodern

architects became another avant garde (New and experimental ideas)
that produced designs that mimicked classical style.
 FRAMPTON’S ESSAY
Towards a Critical Regionalism:
Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance

1. Culture & Civilization

2. The Rise & the fall of the Avant Garde

3. Critical Regionalism & World Culture

4. The Resistance of the Place- Form

5. Climate vs. Nature: Topography, Context, Climate, Light & Tectonic

Form

6. The Visual vs. The Tactile

 FRAMPTON’S ESSAY

Frampton in his essay argues that it is "critical to adopt“ universal values

of modernism, taking into account the geographical context of the
building. Frampton does not want to refer directly to "folklore", but to the
climate, light, topography, and "local tectonic form", which should be
understood as historical and geographical conditions of the construction
industry.

In this perspective, critical regionalism should be treated as a "reformed

modernism" and probably for this reason, the best designs are made by
architects from countries far from a universal bustle of big cities.
 ARCHITECTS
Architects who have used such an approach in some of their works:

1.Alvar Aalto
2.Jørn Utzon
3.Mario Botta
4.B.V.Doshi
5.Charles Correa
6.Alvaro Siza
7.Rafael Moneo
8.Geoffrey Bawa
9.Raj Rewal
10.Tadao Ando
11.Mack Scogin / Merrill Elam