Response to a Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance and Landscape as Urbanism

Response to a Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance:

In regards to question number two, Tzonis and Lefaivre state that, “Regionalism has dominated architecture in almost all countries at some time during the past two centuries and a half.” As a “general definition we can say that it upholds the individual and local architectonic features against more universal and abstract ones… Despite these limitations, critical regionalism is a bridge over which any humanistic architecture of the future must pass (Page 20).”

I think that architecture can’t move into the future without first understanding architecture of the past.  We have to learn how to merge new architecture with old architecture and make it some how related to the existing conditions of the area where the architecture is to be built.  For example: the new MassART residence hall doesn’t fit in with it’s surroundings and stands out like a sore thumb.  I personally think that the building should have conformed the height of the buildings around it and the façade of the building, in my mind, will be out dated in the next decade. 

Response to Landscape as Urbanism:

Stan Allen of Princeton University states, “Increasingly, landscape is merging as a model for urbanism.  Landscape has traditionally defined as the art of organizing horizontal surfaces… By paying close attention to these surface conditions – not only configuration, but also materiality and performance – designers can activate space and produce urban effects without the weighty apparatus of traditional space making (Page 37).”

         Landscaping around a building ties the building to it’s surroundings.  A building without landscape makes the building look like it could be picked up and plopped onto another site.  Creating a green space is just as important as creating a building.  If Boston, or any other city for this matter, didn’t have green spaces, such as parks, we would live in a dismal and dull.  Can you imagine living in a place with no greenery or water?  I can’t.