Critical Regionalism case study : Indian Community School

I got a chance to visit the Indian Community School in Milwaukee, WI and I didn't have any clue what critical regionalism as a style, or know that it was one of the responses to Modernism and Post-Modernism - but I was captivated by how the project worked with the site, used local materials, had a high emphasis on craft, responded to the natural landscape, and fit with the usergroups in their respect to design goals and values.  I will also explain how I think it contains elements of critical regionalism attitude and way of thinking.

Indian Community School / Antoine Predock (with Eppstein Uhen Architects) - Completed 2007

The stone and wood used in the columns, beams, and some of the interior finishes were milled and provided from nearby local sources, but one of my favorite parts of the building is that the classrooms are partially submerged into the ground so that the ribbon windows which let in natural light also showcase the land surrounding the school.  

Some of the values of native american tribes were reimagined and reinterpreted to have a different form, which echoes the defamilarization that was included in the Lefaivre Tzonis reading as what defines the heart of the style:

"Critical regionalism is interested in specific elements from the region, those that have acted as agents of contract and community, place defining elements, and incorporates them "strangely," rather than familiarly, making them appear strange, distant, difficult even disturbing.  It distrusts the sentimental "embracing" between buildings and their consumers, insteading, "pricking the conscience."  (Lefaivre Tzonis, Critical Regionalism, 21)

My favorite example of how this school is an example of reinterpreted and defamiliarized components or elements is the thinking room, which is the punishment space for the Pre-K through 8 grade students.  It's a relatively small room with a copper rotating track door that has no windows

 where students are put into to think about their actions and what they should have done instead.  The copper finish on the inside of the space trickles light down from the open occulus at the top and the amount of light in the space depends on what time of the day it is during school hours.  This is a reimagined Kiva thinking space, which has been a traditional and vernacular space to native america culture where people gathered together in a circular space with an round opening in the roof and discussed issues and values together in a group or community space.