Critical Regionalism

2012-09-01 Literary Criticism

Author : Douglas Reichert Powell
Release : 2012-09-01
Genre : Literary Criticism
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 747/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Critical Regionalism by : Douglas Reichert Powell

Download or read book Critical Regionalism written by Douglas Reichert Powell. This book was released on 2012-09-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of "region" in America has often served to isolate places from each other, observes Douglas Reichert Powell. Whether in the nostalgic celebration of folk cultures or the urbane distaste for "hicks," certain regions of the country are identified as static, insular, and culturally disconnected from everywhere else. In Critical Regionalism, Reichert Powell explores this trend and offers alternatives to it. Reichert Powell proposes using more nuanced strategies that identify distinctive aspects of particular geographically marginal communities without turning them into peculiar "hick towns." He enacts a new methodology of critical regionalism in order to link local concerns and debates to larger patterns of history, politics, and culture. To illustrate his method, in each chapter of the book Reichert Powell juxtaposes widely known texts from American literature and film with texts from and about his own Appalachian hometown of Johnson City, Tennessee. He carries the idea further in a call for a critical regionalist pedagogy that uses the classroom as a place for academic writers to build new connections with their surroundings, and to teach others to do so as well.

Resisting Postmodern Architecture

2022-01-10 Architecture

Author : Stylianos Giamarelos
Release : 2022-01-10
Genre : Architecture
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 332/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Resisting Postmodern Architecture by : Stylianos Giamarelos

Download or read book Resisting Postmodern Architecture written by Stylianos Giamarelos. This book was released on 2022-01-10. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its first appearance in 1981, critical regionalism has enjoyed a celebrated worldwide reception. The 1990s increased its pertinence as an architectural theory that defends the cultural identity of a place resisting the homogenising onslaught of globalisation. Today, its main principles (such as acknowledging the climate, history, materials, culture and topography of a specific place) are integrated in architects’ education across the globe. But at the same time, the richer cross-cultural history of critical regionalism has been reduced to schematic juxtapositions of ‘the global’ with ‘the local’. Retrieving both the globalising branches and the overlooked cross-cultural roots of critical regionalism, Resisting Postmodern Architecture resituates critical regionalism within the wider framework of debates around postmodern architecture, the diverse contexts from which it emerged, and the cultural media complex that conditioned its reception. In so doing, it explores the intersection of three areas of growing historical and theoretical interest: postmodernism, critical regionalism and globalisation. Based on more than 50 interviews and previously unpublished archival material from six countries, the book transgresses existing barriers to integrate sources in other languages into anglophone architectural scholarship. In so doing, it shows how the ‘periphery’ was not just a passive recipient, but also an active generator of architectural theory and practice. Stylianos Giamarelos challenges long-held ‘central’ notions of supposedly ‘international’ discourses of the recent past, and outlines critical regionalism as an unfinished project apposite for the 21st century on the fronts of architectural theory, history and historiography.

Tropical Architecture

2001 Architecture

Author : Alexander Tzonis
Release : 2001
Genre : Architecture
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Tropical Architecture by : Alexander Tzonis

Download or read book Tropical Architecture written by Alexander Tzonis. This book was released on 2001. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tropical region covers a significant proportion of the globe, and yet its architecture receives relatively little outside comment or exposure. Dispersed widely throughout the world, the region incorporates areas as far-flung as the Caribbean islands, India, South-East Asia, and large parts of Australia, Africa and South and Central America. Despite their great cultural diversity, these areas share both climatic and ecological factors, as well as a post-colonial condition and the pressures of modernization in the world of globalization. Architects' reactions to the tropical context are as varied as the region is diverse. Tropical Architecture brings together architects and critics from throughout the tropical region, examining the implications of the opposing forces of tradition and innovation and the struggle between global and local order. Among the issues covered are sustainability, bio- and cultural diversity, micro-climatic control and technology and multi-disciplinary design. The argument centres on Critical Regionalism, a concept introduced into the architectural debate in the early 1980s by two of the book's co-authors, Tzonis and Lefaivre. This is not a style but rather an approach to architecture that asks for design to be conceived in response to the needs and opportunities of a specific region - although it is not inherently opposed to global potentials. The theoretical debate is backed up by case studies of a range of projects, from small-scale designs using minimal technology to super-sophisticated, high-tech solutions, and from schemes that look to environmental comfort to ones concerned with issues of symbolism and memory. It is out of this multiplicity of approaches that the general global lesson of Critical Regionalism as applied to tropical architecture is to be found. THE PRINCE CLAUS FUND stimulates and supports activities in the field of culture and development by granting awards, funding and producing publications and by financing and promoting networks and innovative cultural activities. Support is given both to persons and to organizations in African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbearn countries.

Critical Regionalism

2003 Architecture

Author : Liane Lefaivre
Release : 2003
Genre : Architecture
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Critical Regionalism by : Liane Lefaivre

Download or read book Critical Regionalism written by Liane Lefaivre. This book was released on 2003. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This richly illustrated and designed book in the "Architecture in Focus" series reconsiders critical regionalism and demonstrates the global viability of one of the most visible trends in contemporary architecture. As globalization increasingly enters every facet of our lives, its homogenizing effects on architecture, urban spaces and the landscape have compelled architects to embrace the principles of critical regionalism, an alternative theory that respects local culture, geography and climate. In this reexamination of critical regionalism, two prominent architectural critics argue for a truce between the seemingly antithetical philosophies of critical regionalism and globalization. The authors trace the genesis of critical regionalism to its ancient historical and political roots, and focus on its modern expression in the works of Alvar Aalto, Richard Neutra, Oscar Niemeyer and others. They point to the increasing use of the theory in the recent works of a truly global selection of visionary architects - including Santiago Calatrava in Spain, Renzo Piano in the South Pacific and Berger and Parkkinen in Germany. Discussions of Tropical Architecture and contemporary work in Asia round out this important contribution to a topical debate about architecture's role in the world."--Amazon.

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