Looking backward, Looking forward
I find this topic to be incredibly interesting and confounding, the deeper I think on it the more I understand and the more I don't. Although "Critical Regionalism" has been a topic that has grown in the past century, I think that there are examples that predate the discourse. Living in working in Charleston for a year, I learned a lot, I mean A LOT, about the Charleston Single House than I thought I would ever know.
At face value, it doesn't really seem like anything that special, however, I learned through both work and our history and theory class with Jim Thomas that the houses responded incredibly to the environment in a way that architects today should recognize. To begin, most single houses are oriented to the South or West aligning with the wind. The outside porches are referred to as "piazzas" and often, but not always, have a wall separating the street from the porch. This is often referred to as the "piazza screen". These outdoor spaces often doubled as living spaces so the piazza screen would provide privacy. The houses are called single houses because they were one-room wide. Usually, the entrance would be in the middle of the house where you entered into a foyer with a room on either side.
Over-time the houses were added on to and evolve to fit different needs as well as classes of people. To look at the whole cannon of single houses in Charleston is rather remarkable, and when you learn why they are the way they are, you'll understand why they can't exist anywhere else.
I think moving forward in architecture, we can continue to respond to the place in new ways, I think that is what makes "Critical Regionalism" critical. I think the most important part to "Regionalism" begins with understanding the culture, land, climate, etc. and begin to respond to it.
At face value, it doesn't really seem like anything that special, however, I learned through both work and our history and theory class with Jim Thomas that the houses responded incredibly to the environment in a way that architects today should recognize. To begin, most single houses are oriented to the South or West aligning with the wind. The outside porches are referred to as "piazzas" and often, but not always, have a wall separating the street from the porch. This is often referred to as the "piazza screen". These outdoor spaces often doubled as living spaces so the piazza screen would provide privacy. The houses are called single houses because they were one-room wide. Usually, the entrance would be in the middle of the house where you entered into a foyer with a room on either side.
Over-time the houses were added on to and evolve to fit different needs as well as classes of people. To look at the whole cannon of single houses in Charleston is rather remarkable, and when you learn why they are the way they are, you'll understand why they can't exist anywhere else.
I think moving forward in architecture, we can continue to respond to the place in new ways, I think that is what makes "Critical Regionalism" critical. I think the most important part to "Regionalism" begins with understanding the culture, land, climate, etc. and begin to respond to it.
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