Critical Regionalism vs Metabolist Architecture
クリティカル・リージョナリズム / メタボリズム建築
Both sit in Modern Architecture, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Critical Regionalism
A position that sides neither with the uniformity of the International Style nor with the nostalgia of local revivalism. It takes on the climate, terrain, materials and light of a place as conditions of the design and answers them in the language of modern architecture. It separated being rooted in a place from being backward looking.
Metabolist Architecture
Conceives city and building as one vast system that can grow, exchange and renew itself like an organism.
| Critical Regionalism | Metabolist Architecture | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1980s– | 1960s–1970s |
| Family | Modern Architecture | Modern Architecture |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Adoption of local materials and building methods / Section and openings that answer the climate / Siting that follows the terrain / Regional character as a condition rather than as ornament | Exchangeable capsules / Megastructures / Growing cities / Organic networks |
| Best used for | Turning conditions specific to a place into design reasoning rather than style · Handling the vernacular while staying in a modern language | Research buildings and housing where services and rooms are designed to different lifespans. · Phased urban proposals that must show the order in which growth happens. |
| Type | Respect the local sign system and do not overwrite it with an imported typeface. | Number the joints on drawings so each exchangeable unit has a name. |
| Composition | Decide the section from sunlight and wind direction and let the plan follow from it. | Hang repeated removable units off a core that never moves. |
| Material | Work materials from the region with contemporary methods. | Factory made precast and room pods joined by visible metal connections. |
| Caution | Applying folk craft motifs is the opposite attitude. Regional character enters as a condition, not as an appearance. | Quoting the capsule shape without deciding how and at what cost units are swapped leaves the imagery and no renewal. Grasp the system thinking that answered population growth and urban renewal. |