Placing resistance: A critique of critical regionalism

Journal of Architectural Education

Volumn 55, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 228-237

  Eggener, Keith L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33745143066     PISSN: 10464883     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/104648802753657932     Document Type: Review

References (77)

1. Kenneth Frampton, "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance," in Hal Foster, ed., The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Post-Modern Culture (Seattle: Bay Press, 1983), p. 21
2. "Prospects for a Critical Regionalism," Perspecta 20 (1983): 148
3. and Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 2nd ed. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1985), p. 327
4. See also Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre, "The Grid and the Pathway," Architecture in Greece 15 (1981): 164-78
5. and William J. Curtis, Modern Architecture Since 1900 (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982), pp. 331-343
6. Although Curtis wrote here of "modern regionalism," this was essentially the same phenomenon that Frampton, Tzonis, and Lefaivre called "critical regionalism." See also Curtis's "Towards an Authentic Regionalism," Mimar: Architecture in Development 19 (Jan./March 1986): 24-31
7. For texts on regionalism and critical regionalism in architecture published before 1988, see Michael Steiner and Clarence Mondale, Region and Regionalism in the United States: A Source Book for the Humanities and Social Sciences (New York: Garland, 1988), pp. 9-78
8. Jane M. Jacobs, Edge of Empire: Postcolonialism and the City (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 14
9. The reception of critical regionalism until now has been largely uncritical. Most of the publications discussing it have centered on explication, elaboration, or illustration of its concepts. Among the few previous essays to questionthese concepts directly are Alan Colquhoun, "Critique of Regionalism," Casabella 630-631 (Jan./Feb. 1996): 51-55
10. "The Concept of Regionalism," in Gülsüm Baydar Nalbantoglu and Wong Chong Thai, eds., Postcolonial Space(s) (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1997), pp. 13-23
11. Mary McLeod, "Architecture and Politics in the Reagan Era: From Postmodernism to Deconstructivism," Assemblage 8 (Feb. 1989): 36
12. and Richard Ingersoll, "Conference Review: Context and Modernity," Journal of Architectural Education 44/2 (Feb. 1991): 124-125. Ingersoll notes that, at this conference, held at Delft Technical Univ., June 12-15, 1990, substantial critiques of critical regionalism were raised by Fredrick Jameson, Marshall Berman, Ingersoll himself, and others; the proceedings of this event have never been published
13. Worth noting is the fact that, as a concept, critical regionalism has often proven more agreeable to critics than to the designers said to be its representatives. Architect Luis Fernández-Galiano, for instance, recalled that, at a conference on the subject held in Spain in 1985, "the architects [in attendance] felt insulted when ... described [as regionalists]." Luis Fernández-Galiano, "Ten Aphorisms on Regionalism," in Amourgis, ed., Critical Regionalism, p. 31
14. According to one American editorial published a few years later, "architects who seriously regard themselves as regionalists now resent the very word." Deborah K. Dietsch, "Regionalism Lost and Found," Architecture 80 (Aug. 1991): 13
15. "Since, then, it is climate which causes the variety in different countries, and the dispositions of the inhabitants, their stature and qualities are naturally dissimilar, there can be no doubt that the arrangement of buildings should be suitable to the qualities of the nations and people, as nature herself wisely and clearly indicates." Vitruvius, De Architectura (online version edited by Bill Thayer: www .ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ ancient-rome/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/6.html), book VI, chapter 1, paragraph 12
16. For a historical overview of regionalist writings, see Tzonis and Lefaivre, "Critical Regionalism," in Amourgis, ed., Critical Regionalism, pp. 2-23
17. See, for example, Barbara Miller Lane, National Romanticism and Modern Architecture in Germany and the Scandanavian Countries (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
18. Lewis Mumford, The South in Architecture (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1941), p. 30
19. Tzonis and Lefaivre, "The Grid and the Pathway," pp. 164-178
20. Frampton, "Prospects for a Critical Regionalism," p. 162
21. Since the early 1980s, Frampton has discussed the topic in numerous published essays and interviews. In addition to those already noted, see "El Regionalismo Crítico: Arquitectura Moderna e Identidad Cultural," Proa 354 (Sept. 1986): 20-23
22. "Ten Points on an Architecture of Regionalism: A Provisional Polemic," Center 3: The New Regionalism (1987): 20-27
23. "Place-Form and Cultural Identity," in John Thackara, ed., Design After Modernism: Beyond the Object (London: Thames and Hudson, 1988), pp. 51-66
24. "Some Reflections on Postmodernism and Architecture," in Lisa Appignanesi, ed., Postmodernism: ICA Documents (London: Free Association Books, 1989), pp. 75-87
25. "Critical Regionalism Revisited," in Amourgis, ed., Critical Regionalism, pp. 34-39
26. and "Universalism and/or Regionalism: Untimely Reflections on the Future of the New," Domus 782 (May 1996): 4-8
27. Paul Ricoeur, "Universal Civilization and National Cultures," in History and Truth, Charles A. Kelbley trans. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1965), p. 276. The essays quoting Ricoeur are those appearing in The Anti-Aesthetic, edited by Hal Foster, Perspecta, and Frampton's Modern Architecture
28. Frampton, Modern Architecture, p. 315
29. and Modern Architecture, p. 315
30. Frampton, "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance," p. 19
31. For related critiques of postmodern architecture in the 1980s, see McLeod, "Architecture and Politics in the Reagan Era: From Postmodernism to Deconstructivism," pp. 22-59
32. and Diane Ghirardo, "The Deceit of Postmodern Architecture," in Gary Shapiro, ed., After the Future: Postmodern Times and Places (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), pp. 231-252
33. and "Prospects for a Critical Regionalism," p. 149
34. Tzonis and Lefaivre: "Critical Regionalism," in Amo urgis, ed., Critical Regionalism, pp. 3, 20-21
35. and "Why Critical Regionalism Today?" A + U 236 (May 1990): 31
36. Frampton, "Place-Form and Cultural Identity," pp. 63-65
37. Classic texts posing these sorts of questions include Edward Said, Orientalism (New York, Vintage, 1978)
38. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983)
39. and Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983)
40. A related book focusing on architecture is Lawrence J. Vale's Architecture, Power, and National Identity (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992)
41. Curtis, for instance, in setting up his laudatory remarks on Barragán's work, rather lightly dismissed designs by Barragán's compatriots Carlos Lazo and Juan O'Gorman. Curtis, Modern Architecture Since 1900, p. 333
42. His discussion of Mexican architecture was expanded after the book's first editing. See also Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity, p. 54
43. Emilio Ambasz, Architecture of Luis Barragán (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1976). Sales figures come from a telephone interview with Kim Tyner of MoMA's Office of Publications, Oct. 1, 1993
44. Ambasz, Architecture of Luis Barragán, p. 5
45. Anibol Figueroa, "The Context of Luis Barragán's Mexican Architecture," Center: The New Regionalism, 3 (1987): 48
46. Figueroa, "The Context of Luis Barragán's Mexican Architecture," p. 46
47. O'Gorman's remarks about Barragán and El Pedregal are recorded in Seldon Rodman, Mexican Journal: The Conquerors Conquered (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1958), pp. 21, 84
48. Jorge Aberto Manrique, "Luis Barragán ¿Arquitectura Nacionalista?" La Semana de Bellas Artes (July 6, 1980): 6-7
49. Legorreta speaking about Barragán's influence on his work: "I am proud to be copying him." James Steele, "Interview: Ricardo Legorreta," Mimar: Architecture in Development 12/43 (June 1992): 62
50. For more on postwar architectural diversity in Mexico, see Fernando González Gortázar, ed., La Arquitectura Mexicana del Siglo XX (México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1994)
51. and Keith Eggener, "Contrasting Images of Identity in the Post-War Mexican Architecture of Luis Barragán and Juan O'Gorman," Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 9/1 (March 2000): 27-45
52. Quoted by Alberto Moreiras, "Afterword," in Amaryll Chanady, ed., Latin American Identity and Constructions of Difference (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), p. 208
53. Aso see Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity, pp. 272-293
54. Octavio Paz, "The Uses of Tradition," Artes de México 23, New Series (spring 1994): 92
55. Curtis, Modern Architecture Since 1900, pp. 331-333
56. Ann Binkley Horn, "Modern Mexico," Architectural Record 102 (July 1947): 70, 72
57. Barragán took his civil engineer's diploma from Guadalajara's Escuela Libre de Ingenieros on Dec. 13, 1923. In a 1962 interview, he recalled that civil engineering graduates needed only to take a few more classes - drawing, composition, and art history - and submit a thesis to receive an architectural degree. He remembered completing his coursework, submitting his thesis, and gaining his mentor's approval. The Escuela Libre, however, closed while Barragán was traveling in Europe, and so he did not receive the diploma he deserved. See Alejandro Ramírez Ugarte, "Entrevista con El Arq. Luis Barragán," in Enrique de Anda, ed., Luis Barragán: Clásico del Silencio (Bogatá, 1989), p. 221
58. For a view of Barragán as both artist and entrepreneur, see Keith Eggener, Luis Barragán's Gardens of El Pedregal (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001)
59. Frampton's use and discussion of the term world culture proceeds directly from Ricoeur's essay "Universal Civilization and National Cultures," p. 271
60. Anthony D. King, "Vernacular, Transnational, Post-Colonial," Casabella 630-631 (Jan./Feb. 1996): 71
61. Marina Waisman, "An Architectural Theory for Latin America," Richard Ingersoll, trans., Design Book Review 32-33 (spring/summer 1994): 28
62. An earlier version of these ideas appeared in Waisman's "Cuestión de 'Divergencia': Sobre el Regionalismo Crítico,"Arquitectura Viva 12 (May/June 1990): 43
63. See also Zeynip Çelik, "Cultural Intersections: Re-Visioning Architecture and the City in the Twentieth Century," in Russell Ferguson, ed., At the End of the Century: One Hundred Years of Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998), pp. 190-227
64. Quoted in Esther McCoy, "Jardines del Pedregal de San Angel," Arts and Architecture 68 (Aug. 1951): 24
65. Luis Barragán, "Barragán on Barragán," Archetype 2 (fall 1980): 31
66. Ambasz, The Architecture of Luis Barragán, pp. 9, 108
67. Keith Eggener, "Postwar Modernism in Mexico: Luis Barragán's Jardines del Pedregal and the International Discourse on Architecture and Place," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historian 58/2 (June 1999): 122-145
68. Kenneth Frampton, "Luis Barragán: The Mexican Other," unpublished typescript of a lecture delivered at Columbia Univ., Feb. 1993, p. 6 (my thanks to Kenneth Frampton for sending a copy of this to me); "The Legacy of Luis Barragán," Columbia Architecture, Planning, Preservation Newsline (Nov./Dec. 1992): 4
69. Rodman, Mexican Journal, p. 97
70. Clients, colleagues, and friends even characterized Barragán as a snob and an elitist. See, for example, Yukata Saito, "Interview with Francisco Gilardi," Luis Barragán (México: Noriega Editores, 1994), p. 132
71. Nalbantoglu and Thai, "Introduction," Postcolonial Space(s), p. 8. Note, for instance, the section headings in Frampton's essay, "Ten Points on an Architecture of Regionalism: A Provisional Polemic." These include "Information and Experience," "Space/Place," "Typology/Typography," "Architectonic/Scenographic," "Artificial/Natural," and "Visual/Tactile."
72. "The fight against colonial powers," Ricoeur wrote, "and the struggles for liberation were, to be sure, only carried through by laying claim to a separate personality." The nation emerging from colonialism "has to root itself in the soil of its past, forge a national spirit, and unfurl this spiritual and cultural revindication before the colonialist's personality. But in order to take part in modern civilization," to be economically and politically viable, the new nation must also embrace "scientific, technical, and political rationality." That is, Ricoeur says, it must embrace "universal world civilization." Ricoeur, "Universal Civilization and National Cultures," pp. 271, 277
73. Jacobs, Edge of Empire, pp. 14-15
74. Mumford, The South in Architecture, p. 120
75. In October, 1984, The Architectural Review devoted an issue to regionalism (its second in a year and a half), because, its editors claimed, "so many architects see Regionalism as the salvation of modern architecture." Architectural Review 176 (Oct. 1984): 23
76. King, "Vernacular, Transnational, Post-Colonial," p. 71
77. Harwell Hamilton Harris, "Regionalism and Nationalism in Architecture," The Texas Quarterly 1 (Feb. 1958): 116