Rooted modernity

Despite the thriving role of history within many schools of architecture, it is still considered an arena for future architects to acquire a fundamental familiarity with ‘a repository of both spatial and tectonic typologies available for use and transformation’. ¹ Architectural historians are expected to impart insights into the distinct forms, paradigms, hypotheses, positions and ‘styles’ of architecture. While students of architecture acquire the language, behaviour and culture of their discipline within studios, they are expected to passively receive the different pursuits of past architects. Presenting students of architecture with a pictorial history of their future profession is most certainly a demanding and challenging task. However, it is equally important to induce in architecture students the ability to create buildings that are rooted in the history of a place. While prompting an in-depth understanding of the value of select architectural works of past societies may at best enhance their critical thinking skills, analysing the successful examples of contemporary architecture inspired by history of an individual, a community or a nation can provide a didactic tool to ensure their critical participation with the places in which they will intervene through their designs.