ABSTRACT
This book explores how the concept of ‘region’ has evolved over time and shaped architectural culture and practice. It questions what the words ‘region’ and ‘regional’ mean for architecture, cities and landscapes past and present, and speculates on the forms they might take in the future. Region is explored in many thematic guises: as a real geographical site of evolving socio-economic activity; as a mythical locus of enduring value; as a gatekeeper of indigenous crafts and vernacular techniques; as a site of architectural and artistic imagination; as a repository of contested, conflicted and mobile identities. The contributing chapters take these themes from the theoretical and literary page through to architectural and urban practice, and from the scale of the domestic hearth through to the ocean archipelago and international law, enriching the long-standing trope of viewing architectural regionalism purely as a matter of style. Curated into four key thematic areas – Theorised Regions, Contested Regions, Heritage Regions and Future Regions – the book incorporates the values, concerns and approaches of a truly diverse international community of scholars, curators and practitioners, as well as the design work of international students tasked to explore what region means to them.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|64 pages
Theorised regions
chapter Chapter 1|17 pages
A ‘true organ of humanity’
chapter Chapter 3|16 pages
Four decades on three fronts
part II|79 pages
Contested regions
chapter Chapter 5|14 pages
On ‘Region’
part III|65 pages
Heritage regions
chapter Chapter 12|15 pages
Southwestern fantasy
chapter Chapter 13|13 pages
The Mediterranean: Between vernacular and contemporary
part IV|76 pages
Future regions
chapter Chapter 15|15 pages
Oscillating between cosmos and roots
chapter Chapter 16|16 pages
255Designing for adaptability and sustainability in regional architecture
chapter Chapter 17|24 pages
Infrastructural peripheries in the city-region
part V|29 pages
Reimagining the artefact