Transcultural Architecture : the Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism.

Critical Regionalism is a notion which gained popularity in architectural debate as a synthesis of universal,'modern'elements and individualistic elements derived from local cultures. This book shifts the focus from Critical Regionalism towards a broader concept of'Transcultural Architecture'and defines Critical Regionalism as a subgroup of the latter. One of the benefits that this change of perspective brings about is that a large part of the political agenda of Critical Regionalism, which consists of resisting attitudes forged by typically Western experiences, is'softened'and negotiated according to premises provided by local circumstances. A further benefit is that several responses dependent on factors that initial definitions of Critical Regionalism never took into account can now be considered. At the book's centre is an analysis of Reima and Raili Pietilä's Sief Palace Area project in Kuwait. Further cases of modern architecture in China, Korea, and Saudi Arabia show that the critique, which holds that Critical Regionalism is a typical'western'exercise, is not sound in all circumstances. The book argues that there are different Critical Regionalisms and not all of them impose Western paradigms on non-Western cultures. Non-Western regionalists can also successfully participate in the Western enlightened discourse, even when they do not directly and consciously act against Western models. Furthermore, the book proposes that a certain'architectural rationality'can be contained in architecture itself - not imposed by outside parameters like aesthetics, comfort, or even tradition, but flowing out of a social game of which architecture is a part. The key concept is that of the'form of life', as developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose thoughts are here linked to Critical Regionalism. Kenneth Frampton argues that Critical Regionalism offers something well beyond comfort and accommodation. What he has in mind are ethical prescripts closely linked to a Cover Contents List of Figures About the Author Acknowledgments Note on the use of East-Asian names Introduction: Critical Critical Regionalism or From Regionalism to Transculturalism 1 Transculturalism 2 Defense of Critical Regionalism 3 Different Critical Regionalisms 4 The Chapters 1 Reima Pietilä’s Kuwait Buildings Revisited: About the Limits of Transcultural Architecture Introduction 1 “City of Kuwait: A Future Concept” 2 The Sief Palace Buildings 3 Transcultural Architecture 4 The Ministry Transformed 5 Conclusions 2 Empathy, Abstraction, Style, Non-Style: Reima Pietilä’s Philosophy 1 Style and Non-Style 2 Empathy and Abstraction 3 Regionalism 4 Ironical Regionalism 5 “Making Things Strange” 6 Empathy and Alienation in the Architecture of Alvar Aalto and Reima Pietilä 7 Lifestyle 8 Dream 9 Conclusion 3 “Magic Internationalism” or the Paradox of Globalization: Louis Kahn’s National Assembly Complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh Introduction 1 Metaphors, Symbols, Irony: Kahn and Pietilä 2 The Hermeneutics of Style 4 Wang Shu and the Possibilities of Critical Regionalism in China Introduction 1 Wang Shu 2 The Possibilities of Critical Regionalism in China 3 Conclusions 5 When the Monumental Becomes Decorative: Thoughts on Contemporary Chinese Architecture Introduction 1 Architecture in Hangzhou 2 The Semantics of Monuments 3 Stammering Monumentality 4 Nietzsche: The Decorative vs. the Monumental 5 Monuments and Identity in China 6 Play, Dream, and the Search for the “Real” Form of Dwelling: From Aalto to Ando Introduction 1 Anti-rationalism of Play in Aalto and Ando 2 Ando’s “Dreamlike Anti-Ra tionalism” 3 Conclusion 7 Wittgenstein’s Stonborough House and the Architecture of Tadao Ando Introduction 1 Simplicity 2 Form of Life 3 Emptiness, Silence 4 Body Architecture, Architecture as Gesture 5 Dreams 8 Cardboard Houses with Wings: The Architecture of Alabama’s Rural Studio Introduction 1 Kitsch Culture and Junk Culture 2 Regionalism and Kitsch 3 Colonial Space and Third World Architecture 9 H-Sang Seung: Design is not Design Introduction 1 H-Sang Seung 2 Seung and the “Right Way of Living” 3 Landscript 4 Landscript and the Culture of Writing 5 Conclusion 10 The Secularization of the Architectural Heritage through Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia Introduction 1 Some General Thoughts on Conservation 2 The Case of Saudi Arabia 3 The Wahhabi Interpretation of Islam 4 The Past and the Sacred 5 Comparisons 6 Religion, Culture and Deculturation 7 Critical Regionalism 8 Conclusion Conclusion Land, Place, and “Form of Life” Bibliography Index Critical Regionalism is a notion which gained popularity in architectural debate as a synthesis of universal, 'modern' elements and individualistic elements derived from local cultures. This book shifts the focus from Critical Regionalism towards a broader concept of 'Transcultural Architecture' and defines Critical Regionalism as a subgroup of the latter. One of the benefits that this change of perspective brings about is that a large part of the political agenda of Critical Regionalism, which consists of resisting attitudes forged by typically Western experiences, is 'softened' and negotiat