Pursuit of Community in Place
Week 10 -
As we
often discuss, architecture shapes place. Place is where people are. So ultimately,
we design for people, not the aesthetic… (Which some designers seem to still be
confused about.) In the approach of Critical Regionalism, it is important to
understand place, context, people, culture, etc. The movement towards a design
process with all this in mind, produces what I would argue – better spaces!
The
text takes us through all the different historic realms of regionalism, which
yes is important to understand, but I want to focus on the aspect of the “correct”
and “incorrect” way of approaching Critical Regionalism. At the end of the text
there is a statement I highly disagree with:
“…operations of identifying, decomposing, recomposing regional design
elements is part of the universal skills of architects which can be carried out
by any competent architect, and not only ‘local ones’.”
I
argue this is the “incorrect” mindset to approach Critical Regionalism, because
yes we have the skill set to design in this realm, but we don’t have the knowledge
of being in that place and seeing how people interact in the space. There is a
large push towards this mindset and it’s wrong. We need to be on the ground,
talking and interacting with those that will be using the space. So, if we are not
the ‘local architect’ then we need to listen to the ‘local architect’ –
I.E. The people.
The
two images I chose to include are both “place based” designs… I offer the images
for your critique.
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| China Expo Pavillion - "incorrect" ??? |
 |
| Bait Ur Rouf Mosque - "correct" ??? |
Here we are again with the more citizen architect approach. An approach that, although challenging in many cases and scenarios, works towards providing a design that suits the people of the place. Part of those key elements critical regionalism speaks upon.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. I am currently writing my essay on Francis Kere, although he is from Gando in Burkina Faso, his biggest tool is the community. The community not only helps him in understanding their needs but also innovating his designs by using local materials and conditions as a base. Very interesting and successful projects through this approach
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