Definitions of Regional Architecture

 I found the Achilles Heel of modernity to be of particular interest for this week. My favorite point of interest was his discussion of regional architecture in both materiality and thermal comfort, with its effects on programmatic layout. As he touched on, the post World War 2 effects from manufacturing were felt throughout the construction industry. This manufacturing pushed new materials into markets where regional building techniques were already mastered to their geographic location. This poisoning of regional architecture creates problems in identity and performance, but from a builder’s perspective that is strictly looking at a construction opportunity as a monetary venture, we’re caught in a bind of working with them to construct projects. I think there’s ways around this, whether through increasing project scope in overall constructed volume or playful remixes of new materials with techniques utilized in traditional materials and methods. I believe the problem is that we air towards the latter, leaving the larger projects to the ones that don’t see value in connectivity, culture and sound design. Overall we need to have a marked improvement in our willingness to do good for others (see Mockbee).