The Scale of Critical Regionalism

I love the idea of critical regionalism. I think there are stunning works that highlight the best attributes of this ideology, such as Peter Zumthor’s Thermes de Vals. The notion of critical regionalism places a premium on connecting architecture to a physical place, as Frampton says in his text Towards a Critical Regionalism, “[Critical Regionalism] may find its governing inspiration in such things as the range and quality of the local light, or in a tectonic derived from a peculiar structural mode, or in the topography of a given site.” I absolutely agree, but I have a hard time translating those values past a certain scale and context. On an urban scale, I immediately conjure images of Genoa, Italy, which in my opinion is the urban epitome of critical regionalism. However, Genoa is blessed with equally stunning topography of other obvious CR architecture. What happens to Critical Regionalism at a large scale, in a highly dense, global city, where any memories of indigenous culture are fading in a dusty museum basement?

Perhaps, the bigger a building or a series of buildings are, the easier it is to achieve Critical Regionalism. In that sense, you are freed from the restraints of heritage and allowed to expand your thoughts past materials and tectonics. The tectonics Frampton revered take a back seat in this setting to the culture and context that Jeremy Till lamented of CR. “A challenge to architects to open up their radar to a wider set of issues than merely the aesthetic and tectonic, and instead follow the Ariadne’s thread through the urban register with all its social, political and physical connotations,” Till asserts. In such a setting as a global city, critical regionalism may instead become critical urbanism- where the movement, engagement, and lives of people are the factors that all the buildings there must have in common and serve foremost. Instead of a building being nestled into topography, a building must be nestled into the throngs of inhabitants and motion of the city.