Liane Lefaivre

Alexander Tzonis

"This richly illustrated and designed book in the "Architecture in Focus" series reconsiders critical regionalism and demonstrates the global viability of one of the most visible trends in contemporary architecture. As globalization increasingly enters every facet of our lives, its homogenizing effects on architecture, urban spaces and the landscape have compelled architects to embrace the principles of critical regionalism, an alternative theory that respects local culture, geography and climate. In this reexamination of critical regionalism, two prominent architectural critics argue for a truce between the seemingly antithetical philosophies of critical regionalism and globalization. The authors trace the genesis of critical regionalism to its ancient historical and political roots, and focus on its modern expression in the works of Alvar Aalto, Richard Neutra, Oscar Niemeyer and others. They point to the increasing use of the theory in the recent works of a truly global selection of visionary architects - including Santiago Calatrava in Spain, Renzo Piano in the South Pacific and Berger and Parkkinen in Germany. Discussions of Tropical Architecture and contemporary work in Asia round out this important contribution to a topical debate about architecture's role in the world."--Amazon.

Architecture and Identity in a Globalised World

Critical Regionalism

Bruno Stagno

The tropical region covers a significant proportion of the globe, and yet its architecture receives relatively little outside comment or exposure. Dispersed widely throughout the world, the region incorporates areas as far-flung as the Caribbean islands, India, South-East Asia, and large parts of Australia, Africa and South and Central America. Despite their great cultural diversity, these areas share both climatic and ecological factors, as well as a post-colonial condition and the pressures of modernization in the world of globalization. Architects' reactions to the tropical context are as varied as the region is diverse. Tropical Architecture brings together architects and critics from throughout the tropical region, examining the implications of the opposing forces of tradition and innovation and the struggle between global and local order. Among the issues covered are sustainability, bio- and cultural diversity, micro-climatic control and technology and multi-disciplinary design. The argument centres on Critical Regionalism, a concept introduced into the architectural debate in the early 1980s by two of the book's co-authors, Tzonis and Lefaivre. This is not a style but rather an approach to architecture that asks for design to be conceived in response to the needs and opportunities of a specific region - although it is not inherently opposed to global potentials. The theoretical debate is backed up by case studies of a range of projects, from small-scale designs using minimal technology to super-sophisticated, high-tech solutions, and from schemes that look to environmental comfort to ones concerned with issues of symbolism and memory. It is out of this multiplicity of approaches that the general global lesson of Critical Regionalism as applied to tropical architecture is to be found. THE PRINCE CLAUS FUND stimulates and supports activities in the field of culture and development by granting awards, funding and producing publications and by financing and promoting networks and innovative cultural activities. Support is given both to persons and to organizations in African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbearn countries.

Critical Regionalism in the Age of Globalization

Tropical Architecture

This fascinating introduction to classical art and architecture is the first book to investigate the way classical buildings are put together as formal structures. It researches the generative rules, the poetics of composition that classical architecture shares with classical music, poetry, and drama, and is enriched by a variety of examples and an extensive analysis of compositional rules. The 205 line drawings make up a discourse of their own, a pictorial text that serves as an introductory theory of composition or basic design aid. Drawing from Vitruvius, the poetics of Aristotle, the theories of classical architecture, music, and poetry since the Renaissance, and the poetics of the Russian formalists, the authors present classical architecture as a coherent system of architectural thinking that is capable of producing a tragic humanistic discourse, a public art with critical, moral, and philosophical meaning.

The Poetics of Order

Classical Architecture

A cognitive history of the emergence of modern architecture. Cutting across disciplinarian and institutional divisions as we know them today, this book reconstructs developments within the framework of a cognitive history of the past. Modern is here taken to mean the radical re-thinking of architecture from the end of the tenth century in Europe to the end of the eighteenth century. Among the key debates that mark the period are those that oppose tradition to innovation, canon to discovery, geometrical formality to natural picturesqueness, the functional to the hedonistic.

A Documentary History, from 1000 to 1810

The Emergence of Modern Architecture

The Architecture of Dimitris and Suzana Antonakakis

Atelier 66

A critical-theoretical reading of the strange, dreamlike work of Leon Battista Alberti.

Re-Cognizing the Architectural Body in the Early Italian Renaissance

Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

With "Ground-Up City," author Liane Lefaivre has developed a theoretical model for tackling playgrounds as an urban strategy. She starts with a historical overview of play and the ludic in art, architecture and urban design, focusing particularly on postwar playgrounds realized in Amsterdam as joint ventures between Aldo van Eyck, Cornelis van Eesteren and Jakoba Mulder. The architecture firm Döll-Atelier voor Bouwkunst explored the possibility of applying the model in two urban redevelopment areas in Rotterdam, Oude Westen in the inner city and Meeuwenplaat in Hoogvliet, an outlying postwar district, refining it into a practical design strategy. The second part of the book provides a refreshing new look at play in a picture essay, with reference images illustrating play as an urban phenomenon. "Ground-Up City" places the playground high on the agenda as an urban design challenge. It also shows how specifying a generic, academic model for a particular situation can lead to a practically applicable design resource.

Liane Lefaivre

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