Select a building from the list below and analyze its design in terms of its larger social, material and environmental contexts. Draw from the lectures and two of the assigned readings to help you describe the transformation of modern architecture at mid-century within the larger intellectual framework of architectural notions of regionalism. In other words, use the readings to help you explain how your building is an illustration of a modernist notion of regionalism, and discuss your building in terms of design characteristics, such as the buildings form, materiality, spatial organization, and structure, as they relate to climate, local (sustainable) building materials and construction techniques, social living patterns, and cultural traditions and influences. Your analysis should be interpretive, as well as critical, and should include at least six images, carefully selected to demonstrate your major points.
Topics*:
Pierre Koenig, Stahl House (Case Study House #22), Hollywood Hills, CA, 1959.
Charles and Ray Eames, Eames House (Case Study House # 8), Pasific Palisades, 1949.
Rudolf Schindler, Schindler House (Kings Road), West Hollywood, CA, 1922.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, Los Angeles, CA, 1919-22.
Le Corbusier, High Court and the Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh, India, c. 1955.
Le Corbusier, Shodan House, Ahmedabad, India, 1951-56.
Tadao Ando, various houses, Japan, 1980s.
Balkrishna Doshi, Aranya Low Cost Housing, Indore, India, 1989 (Vastu-Shilpa),
Luis Barragan, Casa Luis Barragan, 1948.
Alvar Aalto, Town Hall, Syntsalo, Finland, 1949-51.
Alvar Aalto, Villa Mairea, Noormarkku (Links to an external site.), Finland (Links to an external site.), 1938-39.
Louis Kahn, Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1972
Louis Kahn, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, 1959-62
Louis Kahn, National Assembly Building, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1962-82.
*If you would like to explore a different topic, please clear it with the GLA in advance.
In your paper, refer to at least two readings on Architectural Regionalism, in addition to Kenneth Frampton, which we will discuss in class:
Kenneth Frampton, Ten Points on an Architecture of Regionalism: A Provisional Polemic, pp. 374-385.
Lawrence W. Speck, Regionalism and Invention, pp. 70-79.
Lewis Mumford, Excerpts from The South in Architecture, Architectural Regionalism, pp. 96-101.
Juhani Pallasma, Tradition and Modernity: The Feasibility of Regional Architecture in Post-Modern Society, pp. 128-140.
Balkrishna V. Doshi, Cultural Continuum and Regional Identity in Architecture, pp. 110-118.
Richard Neutra, Regionalism in Architecture, pp. 276-79.
Keith Eggener, Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism, pp. 394-407. [Here, Eggener criticizes Framptons notion of critical regionalism].
*All excerpts are from the anthology: Vincent Canizaro, ed., Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2012).
