ABSTRACT
Regionalism has dominated architecture in almost all countries at some time during the past two centuries and a half. Regionalism upholds individual and local architectonic features against more abstract and universal ones. In addition, however, regionalism bears the mark of ambiguity. On the one hand it had been associated with movements of reform and liberation. It has helped foster a sense of identity and to cement new unities. On the other, it has proven to be a powerful tool of repression and chauvinism, splitting people into separate enclaves and enclosing them behind walls of prejudice and intolerance. To understand a regionalist work, therefore, we must look into the context in which it was created: the ways in which its specific features affect human ties and how these features in turn are shaped by given social formations.
