What Is Local?
Critical regionalism, as defined by Frampton, is said to express the idiosyncrasies of place through the indirect application of regional tendencies.
Transformation of 530 Dwelling
I wonder if this is possible in the US. America's cultural development, after all, cannot be separated from its economic growth, tied directly to mass production, mass migration, and, most importantly, mass consumption. So if American identity can no longer speak with the subtly of vernacular expression, maybe its language instead manipulates the common.
Samuel Mockbee and Lacaton/Vassal came to mind when attempting to imagine an American critical regionalism. Each use widely available, globally produced materials to formulate something idiosyncratic. Their buildings indirectly respond to their respective regions through consideration of climate, topography, and occupational rhythms. And most of all, their applications of "humble" materials become overtly critical interpretations of the dialectic between standardization of production and standardization of use.
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Lacaton & Vassal
Glass Chapel Samuel Mockbee
It seems in America any use of these standard but not frequently used materials needs to be overly design and dramatic, which doesn't seem to be the cast with European architects. The death of the starchitect may be the key to mass producing sensible ideas as seen by Lacaton and Vassal and others.
ReplyDeleteI think NYC is a prime example of American Critical Regionalism as you describe, with its monuments to progress and facades treated with subliminal messaging. But even that isn’t exclusive to America I suppose. In some ways it seems Critical Regionalism is a paradox. If the regional tendency is to be a-regional, would the theory not be in spite of itself? Or do we accept “globalized” as a valid characteristic of a region in which to respond to?
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