A More Thorough Incorporation of Critical Regionalism Into the Curriculum
"Southern Roots and Global Reach" is the slogan adorning Clemson University promotional materials all over Lee III. This slogan represents an overall educational goal for our students here: provide unparalleled international and far-reaching off-campus study options and allow students to impact their local communities with their knowledge. To many from the outside, this slogan highlights an emphasis on critical regionalism here at Clemson. To me this slogan highlights a short-coming of our school of architecture - a lack of specific focus on the content of student's studies.
From my experience, students at Clemson experience more of a collage-style architecture education during their first four years here. You get a dose of Boolean and algorithm based design, a heavy emphasis on Star-chitects, a note of Italian Rationalism while abroad, and then you graduate. Concepts of Critical Regionalism remain sequestered to select fluid studios, the community build program, and largely, the school's slogan. I support a Clemson commitment to regionally conscious and devoted design; projects such as Alvar Alto's Saynatsalo's Town Hall, Utzen's Bagsvaerd Church, and Lake Flato's Dixon Water Foundation should be thoroughly studied during a student's academic experience. As David discussed in class today, critical regionalism is a philosophy of many of our educators and researchers here. In my opinion, students would benefit from a more thorough integration of it into the academic curriculum.
*Note: comments based on undergraduate experience
From my experience, students at Clemson experience more of a collage-style architecture education during their first four years here. You get a dose of Boolean and algorithm based design, a heavy emphasis on Star-chitects, a note of Italian Rationalism while abroad, and then you graduate. Concepts of Critical Regionalism remain sequestered to select fluid studios, the community build program, and largely, the school's slogan. I support a Clemson commitment to regionally conscious and devoted design; projects such as Alvar Alto's Saynatsalo's Town Hall, Utzen's Bagsvaerd Church, and Lake Flato's Dixon Water Foundation should be thoroughly studied during a student's academic experience. As David discussed in class today, critical regionalism is a philosophy of many of our educators and researchers here. In my opinion, students would benefit from a more thorough integration of it into the academic curriculum.*Note: comments based on undergraduate experience
Having gone through the undergrad program at Clemson, I tend to agree with you. I think that these ideas could be more integrated into the curriculum as a base for architectural education. Not until grad school did I really get a sense of this slogan that Clemson presents and even still, some of our community projects (specifically those using SimPLY) were not fully integrated into the specific culture of where we were building.
ReplyDeleteA agree with this post but I was a big fan of that "note of Italian Rationalism while abroad"
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