Discover Regional Character from the Bottom Up

Architecture certainly relates to the definition of a region. However, regional identity does not equal post-cards of stylistic architecture. Architecture does not define a region by giving labels and establishing signposts. 

The identity of a region needs to be discovered. The order of a region is often deeply concealed within rather than readily available from given circumstances. Jeff Malpas called this “the obscurity of place.” The identity of a region has a nested character, it is discovered from “an open region within which a variety of elements are brought to light through their mutual interrelation and juxtaposition within that region.”

Architecture is precisely the operation in which “various elements at stake can be distinguished and assembled so as to allow the construction of a single complex structure.” Since an appropriate identification of a region is not readily given, architectural practice is to make efforts, search for it, and retrieve it from the inextricable web of shreds in the context. 

A typical example I can think of is that Tian An Men Square does not stand for the northern regional character of China whereas some Hutong renovations may serve as its more pertinent illustration.