Towards a critical regionalism - kenneth frampton

1. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM
(ARC61303/ARC2224)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2017)
Name: Yeoh Xiang An ID No.: 0322691
Lecturer: Nicholas Ng Tutorial Time:
Reader/Text Title: Towards a Critical Regionalism Synopsis No: 3
Author: Kenneth Frampton
According to Kenneth Frampton, he starts the “Towards a Critical Regionalism” with an essay “History and
Truth” by a philosopher Paul Ricoeur. With the light of his work, he said that architects should interpret local
character and reinterpret it with contemporary terms, and architecture should not be secured by technology
and history, he also intended to create a better understanding of cultural identity, contemporary demands,
and the contextual features in architecture sense that actually influences in architecture education.
In the section titled, “Critical Regionalism and World Culture” Frampton explains how the fundamental strategy
of critical regionalism has bring impact on the universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the
peculiarities of a particular place. In my opinion, Critical Regionalism depends level of critical self-
consciousness, it may find its governing inspiration/in a tectonic derived from a peculiar structural mode, but
I feel that simple minded pursuits to revive the hypothetical forms of a lost vernacular, which Populism is the
communicative/instrumental sigh seeks to evoke not a critical perception of reality, attain a preconceived level
of gratification in behavioristic terms. That made Critical Regionalism as a cultural strategy is as much as a
bearer of world culture as it is a vehicle of universal civilization.
The fourth point elaborated by Frampton is “The Resistance of the Place-Form”. Here the author brings the
importance of contextual features and the characteristic of place. Frampton’s belief that the physical space of
region and the place where the communication between people are different. In my point of view, I agreed to
Frampton’s belief that there is no limitation of physical and the characteristic of place, may be created by
enclosing however its borders should be the beginning of the place instead of its ending.
Based on my reading, I feel that the human perception towards a regional feeling is actually determined by
the Critical Regionalism, discusses that architecture should be embraced to the surrounding context and the
characteristic of the place in the design process and create own identity of the building.
Word Count: 336 Mark Grade
Assessed by: Date Page No.