We come from different places across the globe. Though many of us may speak the same language, we each have different accents. This is because of the various regions we came from.
This occurs with several things, such as music, fashion, and cuisine. Why should our architecture be different?
Critical Regionalism
A Critical Regionalist approach to architecture responds sensitively to its region climatically and culturally in a sustainable way. The reason is the specific relationship to its geographical location.
It considers fundamental characteristics of the place it is to be located without disregarding international influences.
With the current state of technology, mass media, and global communication, it is hard not to foster a universal architectural ideal. Hence, there is a tendency to create “placeless” architecture that relies on mechanical services to provide the desired environment.
This research focused on Critical Regionalism. It is the architecture that “mediates the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from peculiarities of a particular place”, as defined by Kenneth Frampton.
In addition, the project highlights the approaches and design principles of the case studies.
Project Design Application
The thesis application focuses on three main aspects. These are a culturally significant reference, an intrinsic relationship to the site and an integral response to nature.
Barbados, a tropical island in the Caribbean, was chosen as the region for the application.
The building type considered to explore this study is a Center for Design and Culture.
The Center, through the example of its architecture and intended program, could serve to sensitize persons about approaches to design that are regionally specific while still maintaining a global influence.
It was proposed for a site at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, which is the largest higher educational institution in Barbados.
Sugar Cane As A Cultural Reference
Sugar cane was the cultural reference used because of its significance to the history of Barbados. In addition, it has an intrinsic relationship to the natural environment and landscape of the island.
Some of the significant factors of sugar cane in Barbados include:
- That it was the richest European colony for about a century.
- Rum, a by-product of sugar cane, originated in Barbados.
- The traditional architect was influenced by the sugar cane industry.
- Crop Over, the main cultural festival in Barbados, celebrates the end of the sugar cane crop.
- Because of the ordered relation sugar cane has with the land, it significantly characterizes the Barbadian landscape.
I went to secondary/high school in a location that was completely surrounded by cane fields. If those fields could talk, they would tell stories of friends playing games, children running from plantation owners and perhaps a few naughty stories here and there.
The project considers the experience of being in a cane field.
Characteristics of sugar cane and the fields were considered, and how such could influence architectural design.
Relationship And Layout On The Site
Another aspect of sugar cane across the Barbadian landscape is their ordered relationship.
As young cane grows in the field, they create clearly defined rows of linearity. Once the cane matures, a series of masses and voids are generated.
The general programming and building organisation highlights these characteristics.
Main programmatic activity occurs in the masses, while the voids create breezeways and separation of space.
Vertical circulation also occurs in the voids and is symbolic of movement through the inner parts of the cane field.
Relationship With The Topography
The next key issue considered was the intrinsic relationship to the site.
From the literature examined it was highlighted that it is common to bulldoze a sloping site to become flat, making it like any other site and giving it a sense of placelessness.
Allowing the building to use the site’s natural topography gives a unique relationship between the two.
Tadao Ando’s Koshino House was used as a precedent for this concept. It is on a sloped site with lush vegetation, similar to the site of the application.
In addition, using a natural element like sugar cane as a culturally significant reference provided an additional layer of exploration because of its relationship with the natural environment.
Therefore, like sugar cane, the building follows the land’s natural topography, giving it and the persons who use the space a closer connection to the ground.
Natural Light And Shadow
The next key issue deals with an integral response to nature and considers light. Natural light gives a building a direct connection to the environment it is in.
The Koshino House by Tadoa Ando shows the dramatic uses of natural light on the concrete walls of the house through playful manipulation. Ando’s essay previously mentioned, where he writes about the light changing the expression of a building or space with time, is recalled and explored.
Once again, using sugar cane as a reference, consideration was given to how light enters into the cane field through the blades onto the floor of the cane field. Slices of light were created to shine on the floor through the roof of the main gathering and circulation spaces. This is reminiscent of the light through the blades of the sugar cane. The blades of light across the floor provided additional light to interior spaces.
Throughout the day, the movement of light across the space would give a sense of ephemerality, like the gentle movement of the cane blades in the breeze.
Vertical screens along the west are positioned to create solar shading in workspaces. They also create a repetition of light and shadow, which is made more dramatic by the setting sun and may move from short bands across part of the floor to bands that may stretch across the entire space according to the time of the evening.
Natural Ventilation and Transparency
Another integral response to nature is ventilation. The use of mechanical ventilation systems, by their nature, assists in giving a space its placelessness by excluding the natural environment.
The project is very open, disregarding most of the building’s traditional forms of enclosure and fenestration. Hence, this openness facilitates abundant cross ventilation, like the wind moving through a cane field.
Like the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center by Renzo Piano, the design application uses thermodynamic principles to promote natural ventilation.
The project’s openness also creates transparency, which promotes a close relationship with the natural environment throughout the building. Views of the park to the east and the ocean to the west can be experienced from almost anywhere in the building.
Natural illumination is also a benefit of the open transparency of the Center.
Conclusion
The architecture of the design application became based on the sense of the place. It disregards traditional and contemporary concepts but rather understands the place and what it requires.
The use of sugar cane as a reference with an environmental basis and the ability to consider its response to nature created an architectural expression generated primarily by that entity in its surroundings. This resulted in a departure from traditional forms of enclosure and fenestration while maintaining clearly defined sheltered spaces well articulated to nature.
It was interesting to consider architecture based solely on examining a place, its natural environment and the culture of the people in that environment. However, this could not disregard the impact of global influences since this is also part of what characterises a place.
Critical Regionalism, therefore, becomes a crucial examination of place.
The cultural landscape and natural environment became the focus of exploration.