Applying Critical Regionalism
Critical regionalism seems like focusing on the idea of place. How does a place affect its people, and in turn, how do people affect their place? I think the answer to that is architecture. People affect the places they live through architecture, for better or worse. Out of Kenneth Frampton’s Six Points of Architecture for an Architecture of Resistance, I would like to focus on points one and six. Not only because I understand these two points the most, but also because I feel like they have the easiest transition to be understood and applied in the built environment.
Point one is culture and civilization. This directly relates to my comment of architecture affecting people and place for better or worse. And this point relates to the idea of the global city in general. With the rise of technology and possibilities for what architecture can be, it is extremely easy to fail to implement culturally important aspects of design in architecture. The sixth point of Frampton’s list deals with ‘visual vs. tactile.’ Using specific materials that relate to a region in different ways is extremely important to applying critical regionalism. “The tactile and the tectonic jointly have the capacity to transcend the mere appearance of the technical in much the same way as the place-form has the potential to withstand the relentless onslaught of global modernization.” (Towards a Critical Regionalism, 29).
Point one is culture and civilization. This directly relates to my comment of architecture affecting people and place for better or worse. And this point relates to the idea of the global city in general. With the rise of technology and possibilities for what architecture can be, it is extremely easy to fail to implement culturally important aspects of design in architecture. The sixth point of Frampton’s list deals with ‘visual vs. tactile.’ Using specific materials that relate to a region in different ways is extremely important to applying critical regionalism. “The tactile and the tectonic jointly have the capacity to transcend the mere appearance of the technical in much the same way as the place-form has the potential to withstand the relentless onslaught of global modernization.” (Towards a Critical Regionalism, 29).
I like your point about architecture being the way of people affecting place and place affecting people. It feels like a cycle where people built something new or change something, making the place change, and the change effects how people use the space. This leads into more changes to either fix the problem created or to continue something good.
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