History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013 Page 1 of 12 Regionalism in architecture as an expression of appropriate technology and sustainably Term Paper for History of Architecture (AP131) Vedika Agrawal Roll Number: 11 Sushant School of Art and Architecture “Love one’s locality, pride in its accomplishments, and loyalty to everything in it bring about a state of mind known as regionalism.” Harwell Hamilton Harris Regionalism and its inception Regionalism, in architecture, means an architecture that is derived directly from its local setting. The concept of regionalism leads to the building being intrinsically site specific and responding to the local climate and culture of the place, where it is being built. From its initiation, regionalism has often fallen in opposition to modernity and the language of modernism. Regionalism may be viewed as a specific form of modernism, thus becoming an integral part of the search for both identity and modernity. Regionalism recognizes modernism, but is critical of many of its features, such as its high level of abstraction. “To be truly modern, we must first reconcile ourselves with our traditions.” Octavio Paz In the 1980s, a few architects and theorists were dissatisfied by the direction postmodernism was taking architecture to. They started to believe that postmodern architects were producing another avant-garde style, mimicking the classical style, instead of depicting the historicity of style in their designs. In the postmodern period, architecture had started to lack social individuality, cultural uniqueness to the place where the buildings belonged. In contrast to the postmodern ideology, regionalism gave priority to the identity of the building, considering the ecological, social and cultural elements of the region where the buildings were constructed. Regionalist architecture started to treasure and reflect the particularity of a region, its unique environment, locally available materials, the cultural value the place held, and the life led by the people of the place.
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History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013
Page 1 of 12
Regionalism in architecture as an expression of appropriate
technology and sustainably
Term Paper for History of Architecture (AP131)
Vedika Agrawal
Roll Number: 11
Sushant School of Art and Architecture
“Love one’s locality, pride in its accomplishments, and loyalty to everything in it bring about a state of
mind known as regionalism.”
Harwell Hamilton Harris
Regionalism and its inception
Regionalism, in architecture, means an architecture that is derived directly from its local setting. The
concept of regionalism leads to the building being intrinsically site specific and responding to the local
climate and culture of the place, where it is being built. From its initiation, regionalism has often fallen
in opposition to modernity and the language of modernism. Regionalism may be viewed as a specific
form of modernism, thus becoming an integral part of the search for both identity and modernity.
Regionalism recognizes modernism, but is critical of many of its features, such as its high level of
abstraction.
“To be truly modern, we must first reconcile ourselves with our traditions.”
Octavio Paz
In the 1980s, a few architects and theorists were dissatisfied by the direction postmodernism was
taking architecture to. They started to believe that postmodern architects were producing another
avant-garde style, mimicking the classical style, instead of depicting the historicity of style in their
designs. In the postmodern period, architecture had started to lack social individuality, cultural
uniqueness to the place where the buildings belonged. In contrast to the postmodern ideology,
regionalism gave priority to the identity of the building, considering the ecological, social and cultural
elements of the region where the buildings were constructed. Regionalist architecture started to
treasure and reflect the particularity of a region, its unique environment, locally available materials,
the cultural value the place held, and the life led by the people of the place.
History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013
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Essentially, regionalism is linked to the aim of achieving visual harmony between a building and its
surroundings. In other words, it endeavors to create a connection between past and present forms of
buildings. This value is also often related to preserving and creating regional and national identity.
Regionalism consciously tries to correspond to vernacular architecture, without partaking in the
universal.
The use of vernacular techniques
Vernacular architecture portrays a belief in a system of inherited, established or customary patterns of
thoughts, forms, and styles. It usually expresses in use of local materials and handed-down building
technologies. The approach of vernacular architecture can be both historical and contemporary. A
common definition of vernacular architecture is as 'architecture without architects', or ‘unself-conscious
design’. Vernacular is the architecture that was created by using local materials and usually built by its
own inhabitants without the help of architects; regional architecture is built by architects integrating the
local available resources with modern ones, while critical regionalism is a regional architecture
approach seeking universality.
Critical regionalism
Critical regionalism designated a form of architectural practice that embraces modern architecture
critically for its universal unifying qualities while simultaneously responding to social and cultural and
climatic contexts of the region in which it is built. Critical regionalism, as a style, counters lack of
identity and placelessness in modern architecture by relating to the building's geographical context.
The term "critical regionalism" was first used by the architectural theorists Alexander Tzonis and Liane
Lefaivre and later more famously by the historian-theorist Kenneth Frampton in “Towards a Critical
Regionalism: six points of an architecture of resistance.”
Critical regionalism is not regionalism in the sense of vernacular architecture.1 It is, on the contrary, an
avant-gardist, modernist approach, where one consciously starts from the premises of local or regional
architecture. Critical regionalism is not just regionalism, but it also portrays how world culture and
global concerns can be blended with regional issues to create a style that is more critically self-
conscious and expansive.2 It is often argued that regionalism sometimes goes back to just conservation
and resorts to just usage of the vernacular. However, critical regionalism seeks architectural traditions
that are deeply rooted in the local context. The main problem of critical regionalism is to seek answers
to the question of Paul Ricour: “How to be modern and to continue the tradition, how to revive an old
dormant civilization as part of the universal civilization?”
1 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_regionalism 2 Allison Lee Palmer, 2008. Historical Dictionary of Architecture. Edition. Scarecrow Press
History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013
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Charles Correa’s work, as important examples of critical
regionalism
Charles Correa’s architecture is contextual and is considered a prime example of critical regionalism.
Correa’s usage of open-to-sky spaces deliberately evokes the image of early Indian schools, where
the guru sat underneath a Banyan tree. These spaces are also used to provide comfort to the warm
climate, which is alien to the west. His use of the chhatri creates minimal shelter from the sun in the
hottest part of the day, while allowing the users to enjoy being under the open sky.
The Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad
The Gandhi Smarak
Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad,
by Charles Correa, is a
conscious attempt to combine
modernity with regionalism.
Correa uses a network of
interconnected open-to-sky
spaces, to recreate the
Gandhian ideal of a self-
sufficient village
community. The building is
climatically sound and
energy efficient, uses low-
cost material and finishes,
and above all conveys some
sense of the solemnity and dignity dedicated to
Gandhi’s life and work.
The building uses vernacular materials like brick
walls, stone floors and tiled roofs. The spaces are
grouped around a central water court to cool the
buildings in the arid heat.
Figure 1: Gandhi Smarak - Plan http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Collections/Recentacquisitions/CharlesCorrea/GandhiSmarakSangrahalaya.aspx
Figure 2: The view of the courts http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=1026
History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013
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National Crafts Museum located at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi
Charles Correa also
interprets India’s
vernacular architecture in
a modern typology in the
National Crafts Museum
located at Pragati
Maidan, New Delhi. Its
spaces are massed
together to recreate an
Indian village. The museum
incorporates extensive use
of vernacular materials such as stone, bamboo, brick, mud and thatch. There is usage craftwork as
both interior and exterior ornamentation, which not only represents the purpose of the building, but
also reflects India’s tradition of crafts. Correa demonstrates here a successful transition of the
vernacular to the modern, as also how traditional architectural vocabulary need not be synonymous
with ‘backward’.
A walk across the Crafts
Museum building meanders
through open and semi-
open passages covered
with sloping, tiled roofs and
lines with old carved
wooden bidri work;
paintings; terracotta and
cane and bamboo work.
Figure 3: National crafts museum – plan http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=1026
Figure 4: Crafts demonstration area http://nationalcraftsmuseum.nic.in/about_Museum.htm
History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013
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Hassan Fathy and his works
Hassan Fathy, a noted Egyptian architect and a supporter of vernacularism in architecture, developed
a construction system that arranged locally produced, low-cost mud-bricks to create domed and
vaulted building forms reminiscent of regional architecture of the lower Nile valley.
“Fathy devoted more than half a century of his professional to bringing back to the vernacular mode
building tradition endangered by extinction due to the massive post war building activity.”
Hassan Fathy believed in humanistic values and the connections between people and places and the
use of traditional knowledge and materials. He believed in the usage of technology suitable to time
and place, i.e. climate and local economies. Furthermore, he also promoted earth as a construction
material. His projects are based on the elements taken from tradition, that he did extensive studies
about: parabolic arches, square spaces covered with domes, rectangular rooms or narrow spaces with
vaults, courts, balconies and wind towers. He assigned an essential role to tradition and hence to the
re-establishment of a national cultural pride. New Gourna was a critical experiment in the
Figure 6: New Gourna Village, Luxor http://whc.unesco.org/en/activities/637/
History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013
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The work done by Hassan Fathy in New Gourna village inspired a new generation of architects and
planners worldwide through an integration of vernacular technology with modern architectural
principles.
Moreover, Fathy is known to have used traditional techniques that extremely reduce the use of
machinery and instead use what is readily available, at low costs: earth, straw, man’s labour, stones. In
fact, the brick is the only material used in his works. The supporting walls are made either of sun dried
mud bricks and reinforced with straw or of local stones or fired bricks.
Hassan Fathy has effectively used the
Malqaf, which is a traditional wind catcher,
and wind escapes in a lot of his works. This
defined his usage of low cost climate control
techniques to promote sustainability.
Figure 7: Malqaf (traditional wind catcher) with wetted baffles and a wind escape, designed by Fathy http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0envl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0-0-11-1-0utfZz-8-00&cl=CL1.4&d=HASH393b9426a740aee93ea3fc.6>=1
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Ashok Lall and his works
Ashok Lall is one of the famous Indian architects who have been successful in expressing global and
Indian identities in relation to today’s rapid changes.
For example, he has designed the TCI Headquaters
in Gurgaon, where he has balanced the usage of
global materials and the corporate identity of
Gurgaon. However, what is different is that the
materials used are sustainable in terms of energy
and local availability.
He has successfully adapted the concept of the
courtyard in a modern city office, which has
achieved a high level of energy efficiency. Small
windows have been used for daylight on the
periphery and openness towards the fountain court
within. Furthermore, the usage of local materials
makes the building look aesthetically appealing in
a contemporary perspective.
In the design and planning of this building, Ashok
Lall has been inspired from a traditional inward-
looking haveli plan of Rajasthan. He further
includes elements like a
fountain in the courtyard, which acts as a
water body for cooling air, a solid, insulated wall
with peep windows, which encourages cross
ventilation, higher windows for increased daylight.
All these are typical feature of Rajasthani
buildings, which traditionally include landscaping
and shaded courts with water bodies for cooling.
Thus, the TCI Headquaters building is a true
example of critical regionalism, as it not only
demonstrates how world culture can blend with the
usage of distinct Indian elements used for a
purpose. Figure 9: Courtyard of the TCI Headquaters http://www.ivoryresearch.com/writers/kate-andrews-ivory-research-writer/