1.2. Globalization and Critical Regionalism (Contemporary Architecture MOOC)

in the second unit of this first chapter I would like to introduce you to some important concepts that will help you understand better the work the projects that we'll see later in this chapter we'll speak about globalization and critical regionalism these are two very important concepts that have a big impact on the work in architecture that is designed and built today globalization the first one it is because we live in a global world and the fact that you're taking an online course is a proof of it people have access to all kinds of methodologies materials and approaches to architecture what happens is that you can build in a context that is totally foreign totally different from the ideas that you are using for your project and this work will be very different from its own context modern architecture has reached the point in the 60s and 70s where it was doing the so-called international style where projects were quite similar projects had very little relationship to the local culture to the local materials and to the local context that is why in modern architecture was criticized at some point I would like to read you now a passage from Poe recurse book Universal civilization and national cultures from 1961 the phenomenon of universalization while being an advancement of mankind at the same time constitutes a sort of sub style destruction not only of traditional cultures which might not be an irreparable wrong but also of what I shall call for the time being the creative nucleus of great civilizations and great cultures that nuclear's on the basis of which we interpret life while I should call in advance the eternal and mythical nucleus of mankind in the 1980's some architects and critics like Kenneth Frampton for example came with the idea of critical regionalism critical regionalism is an idea in which you can create these regional schools which are influenced by this global architecture in global ideas but personalize them and adapt them to the specific contexts this is why every building had a relationship to its climate to its place to its construction techniques to its cultural heritage and to the place where it was built I would like to now give you an exam as an example a passage from Kenneth Frampton's book critical history of modern architecture chapter 5 page 314 the term critical regionalism is not intended to denote the vernacular as this was one spontaneously produced by the combined interaction of climate culture mittened craf but rather to identify those regional schools whose primary aim has been to reflect and serve the limited constituencies in which they are grounded among other factors contributing to the emergence of regionalism of this order is not only a certain prosperity but also some kind of anti centric consensus an aspiration at least to some form of cultural economic and political independence the concept of a local or national culture is a paradoxical proposition not only because of the present obvious antithesis between rooted culture and universal civilization but also because all cultures both ancient and modern seem to have dependent for their intrinsic development on certain cross fertilization with other cultures as record seemed to imply in the passage quoted above regional or national cultures must today more than ever be ultimately constituted as local infected manifestations of a world culture it is surely no accident that this paradoxical proposition arises at the time when global modernization continues to undermine with ever-increasing force all forms of traditional agrarian base autochthonous culture from the point of view of critical theory we have to regard regional culture not as something given and relatively immutable but rather is something which has at least today to be self-consciously cultivated record suggests that sustaining any kind of authentic culture in the future will depend ultimately on our capacity to generate vital forms a regional culture while appropriating alien influences at the level of odd culture and civilization you can see the description of the seven points of critical regionalism which kena Frampton gives us in the secondary resources of this chapter that idea of critical regionalism was very influential and in fact we have schools in many places around the world that adapted it to to their work for example we have the school of Catalunya with some architects from Barcelona who have the school of a Porto we have the finished school we have the school in the Netherlands or in Switzerland we'll see some of this these projects I would like to now show you some examples of works which would be useful to understand the concept of globalization and critical culture Petersons erskine house in Bregenz from 1991 completed in 99 is a building situated on the border of the Bregenz lake in the border between Austria and Switzerland the building is quite different from its context it's made out of glass facade with concrete structure in the interior it isolates completely the views from the inside of the galleries towards the lake in the exterior even though it doesn't review to us at the lake the architect was able to capture this atmosphere of the lake and to translate it into the spaces of the interior he used glass ceiling and reflecting pools to communicate this idea of the eyes reflection of the eyes and reflection of the water from the lake the building is rather introverted and focuses our attention on the work of art the point about this building is that it's very different from its context it belongs more to a global culture to global ways of building and global design than of local tradition however it fits perfectly on in its context and it creates new paradigm in this city of ringings which would certainly generate a lot of interest visits and development in future architecture the second example that I would like to point to you is the Portuguese pavilion from the 1998 International Exposition in Lisbon designed by Alvaro Siza the building covers this large plaza in the border between the city and the ocean the project has large suspended ceiling built out of concrete suspended through steel cables from side walls it creates this void in the center charged void in the center which is a place for public celebrations and for manifestations the project on its side probably rather inspired by on the side facade or inspired by Lukens geometry and idea of eternal forms when we are next to it we see this very thin suspended ceiling above the pavilion this project even if it's built from a local architect Alvaro Siza who is internationally recognized bring some international ideas to the city of Lisbon therefore it is a point of encounter between these global ideas global culture and the regional culture of Portugal another example that I would like to point is the Casa de historias Paulo Rago from 2008 by Eduardo Souto de Moura in the city of cash cash in nearly spoon in Portugal again the building uses this truncated pyramids to cover the public spaces the cafeteria and the bookstore it is built with painted concrete red painted concrete and creates really unique place is in the interior the architect even if he is from the local place from Portugal he was able to capture some ideas and some forms and tendencies of international architectural culture and translate them to the local context see the spaces in the interior the cuts in the facade and the really unique ways to filter and let the light into the interior another project from Barcelona is the work of Erik Morales and his first wife Carmen Pinos it's the Aguada cemetery from 1984 completed in 1994 Erik Mira is designed this project after a competition that he won with Karen Pinos and the two of them worked on the project for nearly 10 years until it was completed the project is below ground it's a cemetery so it goes below ground into this former cave in the city of Iguala de near Barcelona the technique used for construction is concrete blocks for the sidewalls so it's it's a mixed techniques of in situ concrete and then prefabricated panels for some of the facades the project is again a part of this global architecture which used very complex geometries in the 80s and 90s but adapted them to the local context to the local building techniques a project that I would like to show you from Carlos palette there is the Benidorm water from from 2010 Benidorm is this touristic City which is a product of real estate speculation with huge towers very dense and considered for a while very unsustainable because of its high density now in fact our some studies show that this density is the reason why it's more sustainable that other cities the architect carlos vela tell from office of architecture in barcelona designed and completed this project in 2010 the project situates itself on the border of the city on the border of this very informal high-rise construction and the beaches it uses the sensual curves and geometry to adapt this edge of the city to what the beach is the geometry of the project welcomes the visitors to descend from the level of the city down to the beach through its curve and experience the beach experience the sea and the joy of the summer living debris door yo creo que si de la cita todas las tohno-kun toad a deceit ratio neighs pi sophistica intellectuals mo Cevallos mucho tiempo pencil no no no se como una Ciudad del Turismo de da massification del OC o de legend is mo como construir espacio public o un espacio visa grey entre la tierra en el Mar enter la si de la playa case Agra petha mo never need or ESA cascara door Meighan FINA no Eva Bala beyond OC construyendo console Ishida geometric ax todo el espacio entre snivel calendar la playa la ciudad y el tiempo de general do not oh poor F en su super fishy a topography agamas tiene islas de receta seonbaenim docked ona lugar s distancia lugar esta recreio lugar asparagus visualize re Pavel maar para la tarde Sara

Channel: BUILD ACADEMY

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Keywords: Globalization (Literature Subject), #buildacademy, ivanshumkov, contemporaryarchitecture

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Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 24 2014