In Pursuit of an Avant Regionalism

Abstract

This work begins as a critique of Critical Regionalism and returns to evaluate arguments proposed by Lewis Mumford in regards to Regionalism and “the actual conditions of life.”1 Through this “Pursuit of an Avant Regionalism,” I seek to explore architecture and spatial arrangements responding to conditions of multiplicity and flux. In doing this, I present and propose what I term the “Oceanic Phenomenon” as it characterizes and identifies the fluidity and fluctuation of previous and contemporary regional realities. I analyze accepted notions of regionalism, identify its limits, and propose an altered, expanded version of Critical Regionalism.