Class Notes: November 28, 2011

Urban/Rural Health

Critical Regionalism

1.)  Culture and Civilization

a.     Skyscraper and highway – efficiency

                                               i.     Highest and Best Value

b.     Progress – Growth

                                               i.     Civilization – reason/ration

                                              ii.     Culture – collective – expressions at a difference pace

2.)  Avant Garde –Rise and Fall

a.     Arts & Crafts, not Neoclassicism or Universal

                                               i.     Local and Slow

b.     The Modern Project – Corbusier

                                               i.     Art = Art

3.)  World Culture and C.R.

a.     C.R., assimilation + C.R. not equal to reactionary

b.     Identity-giving, through dialogue = physical, social, and environmental

c.      Regionalism not equal to abstract vernacular - local, universal regional, abstract

d.     Facade, modular

4.)  Against Form

a.     Resistant arch = clearly defined form

5.)  Culture + Nature

a.     Tabularasa - clean slate

6.)  Visual Over Tactile

a.     Sensory engagement, how you hear yourself in a space.

What is this Architecture Resisting?

1.)  Simple, regressive past/nostalgic

2.)   Simple progress, assimilating

3.)  Meaningless/placelessness (discovered this isn’t a word), over abstraction

4.)  Passive architecture

Critical Reg.

1.)   Local, universal balance/dialogue

2.)  Bring meaning-identify

3.)   Medium to express ideas