BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURETHEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224)SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2015) [5 MARKS]

NAME: CHIA WEE MIN ID: 0315186LECTURER: NICHOLAS NG TUTORIAL TIME: 4pm to 6pmSYNOPSIS NO: 4 READER TITLE: FROM " TOWARDS A CRITICAL REGIONALISM "

AUTHOR: KENNETH FRAMPTON Based on the reader, From " Towards a Critical Regionalism" Kenneth Frampton discussed about culture versus the

nature which involves the topography, context, climate, light, tectonic form and the visual versus the tactile which address the

importance of tactile in terms of architecture.

Firstly, Frampton discuss that critical regionalism involves more directly with nature than a more abstract architecture.

Architecture now favors to a more economical, for instance bulldozing of an irregular topography into a flat site but this will lead

to a condition of absolute placelessness where the absence of the place will disappear whereas the terracing of the same site to

receive the stepped form of a building is an engagement to the site.

Another elements will be the climate and light. A generic window is obviously the most delicate point at which the two

natural forces impinge upon the outer membrane of the building, having a innate capacity to inscribe architecture with the

character of the region. Artificial light nowadays can aid the space to be will lit throughout the day will cause the space to lose its

aura but in replacement with the artificial light through carefully contrived monitors, so that where the direct sunlight is avoided,

the ambient light will changes under the impact of time, season humidity and so on.

Despite the topography and light, Frampton also address that the primary principle of the architectural autonomy resides

in the tectonic rather than scenographic as tectonic is just more than the expression of skeletal framework but also raises this

construction to an art form said by the architectural historian, Stanford Anderson. For instance, Kevin Mark Low's architecture,

where he likes to expose the material and the way in which they are fabricated are very raw and vary rough but the way in which

they are design together is refined. In his architecture, he said that it is all about the relationship between one and the other and

how they all come together in a more merry fashion. The way a welder put steel together can be pretty awful, but if there is a

narrative for it, which act as a guide to arrange the material of a greater refinement in contrast with it, then the lack of refinement

is not hidden but showcased in a way that it feels like an art.

Last but not least, Frampton also compare the visual and tactile where he address that tactile is an important dimension

in the perception of built form. Frampton uses Saynatsalo Town Hall as an example wherethe second floor chamber are as much

tactile as the visual which prevent the distancing from a more direct experience of the environment as which Heidegger has

called, "loss of nearness ".

WORD COUNT: 453 DATE: 30/5/2016 MARK: GRADE:ASSSESSED BY: