ABSTRACT
An application of Frampton’s theory is Alex Tzonis and Liliane Lefaivre’s “The grid and the pathway” (1981) – a “bridge over which any humanistic architecture of the future must pass” (P. Ricouer). Critical regionalism will mediate the spectrum between universal civilization and the particularities of place. Ricouer questions “how to become modern and to return to sources; how to revive an old, dormant civilization and take part in universal civilization.” This question asserts the necessity of a historical model of continuous evolution whereby lessons of the past inform future moves. However there often exists, as Ricoeur states, the requirement to “abandon a whole cultural past in order to take part in modern civilization.” If critical regionalism is a solution, then one would want to know how a region is to be defined or redefined under the circumstance of whole cultural abandonment and therefore its shifting boundaries.
