Read and React

Critical Regionalism has always been a fascinating realm of architecture to me for multiple reasons.  I was first introduced to the ideas and ethos of it from Jim Thomas during my undergraduate semester in Charleston, SC.  It has always been a tricky concept for me to grasp because it deals so specifically with the intangible elements of a place.  These intangibles are then distilled and made into a physical element that compose a design.  Although it has taken me multiple exposures to critical regionalism to discover how architects work with these ideas, I have always known it is crucial method of design because of the amazing architecture it yields.  This subject as with architecture in general is so fascinating because there is no right answer but when you see someone get it right you know it.  It is no easy task to distinguish that which is local and of intangible value to that which is junk space.  

I often end up comparing the study of architecture, to other fields I have some understanding in.  As Professor Franco talked about the way critical regionalism is a conversation, a process of reading and reacting to what is local and valuable I instantly thought of my experiences learning blacksmithing.  Blacksmithing works in a very similar way, as one works the metal there is a constant feedback loop.  There is the action you take, the way the metal reacts to that action, your visual analysis of it, your consideration of the next step, and then the process repeats.  This process of making is very complex and requires the level of intelligence that is unique to other methods of manufacturing.  It is not purely additive nor subtractive and the steps and are not predictable because it relies on the feedback of reading and reacting.  All in all, this bolsters the importance of architectural theory, the importance of paying attention, and the value of discerning appropriate actions based on what one observes.

It's not surprising that when writing this blog and listening to Professor Franco talk about it that my mind does not go directly to the readings or the originators of the ideas but to the people I have known and the work they've done, such as Jim Thomas and Dan Harding.  This relationship to the subject almost directly relates to critical regionalism, to learn it from those who have lived in and studied an area; it is to then learn directly from someone you know as one would learn directly from a place.