Product Description

In this rapidly globalizing world, any investigation of architecture inevitably leads to considerations of regionalism. But despite its omnipresence in contemporary practice and theory, architectural regionalism remains a fluid concept, its historical development and current influence largely undocumented. This comprehensive reader brings together over 40 key essays illustrating the full range of ideas embodied by the term. Authored by important critics, historians, and architects such as Kenneth Frampton, Lewis Mumford, Sigfried Giedion, and Alan Colquhoun, Architectural Regionalism represents the history of regionalist thinking in architecture from the early twentieth century to today. These seminal texts—many of which are out of print and hard to locate—are organized around themes that include regionalism and rapid modernization, modernism, historicism, regional planning, bioregionalism, and critical regionalism. Also included are a small group of recent, previously unpublished essays that extend the notion of architectural regionalism into the future. Taken as a whole, the collection underscores the continuing relevance of the concept as it fosters thoughtful works that engage the senses, embody and express local cultural processes, promote environmental sustainability, and enhance people's awareness of the world around them. Editor Vincent Canizaro's insightful introduction and his brief analysis of each essay guides readers through the lively debate surrounding this topic, making this the definitive reference on architectural regionalism for faculty, students, and practitioners in design and design-related fields.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #352802 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781568986166
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
Essays in defense of regionalism go down more smoothly in an age of globalism and numbing sameness. Customization as self-expression is taking hold from the auto industry to sports shoes, so why not in architecture? From his vantage point at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Canizaro argues that regionalism, far from fostering provincialism, can "open up the possibility of shared purpose, in which the concerns of here are understood as linked to there: ecologically, economically, and socially." -- Architect, April 2007

This comprehensive reader brings together over 40 key essays illustrating the full range of ideas embodied by the term. Authored by important critics, historians, and architects... -- RIBA, December 2006

About the Author
Vincent B. Canizaro is an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Texas, San Antonio. As a practicing architect, Canizaro focuses on site-specific, sustainable, and community-based design and landscape.

Customer Reviews

Building a Discourse
The intent of this volume was to construct a coherent history of the idea of regionalism from its many many supporting texts and ideas. It is an important collection of writing that covers the entire 20th Century intellectual history of Regionalism in Architecture and includes such authors as: Lewis Mumford, Le Corbusier, David Williams, Mary Colter, Pietro Belluschi, Christopher Alexander, Wendell Berry, Kenneth Frampton, Sigfried Giedion, Harwell Hamilton Harris, Richard Ingersoll, Benton MacKaye, John Gaw Meem, Richard Neutra, Paul Ricouer, Alan Colquhoun, Juhani Pallasmaa, among others (44 in all). Further, it considers Regionalism in an international context, particularly the developing world through the writings of Suha Ozkan (Middle East), Balkrishna Doshi (India), and Kenza Boussora (Algeria). In it are provided contextual introductions to each text and an introduction that attempts to place the discourse, as a whole in reasonable framework. The topics include: Regionalist theory, Referential Regionalism (1920s & 30s), Regional Modernism (1930s-1960s), Regional Planning, Bioregionalism, Critical Regionalism, and a set of essays that update and extend the discourse into the future via performativity theory, sustainability, and the socially-critical work of the Rural Studio.