Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization. Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World

The definitive introductory book on the theory and history of regionalist architecture in the context of globalization, this text addresses issues of identity, community, and sustainability along with a selection of the most outstanding examples of design from all over the world.

Alex Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre give a readable, vivid, scholarly account of this major conflict as it relates to the design of the human-made environment. Demystifying the reasons behind how globalization enabled creativity and brought about unprecedented wealth but also produced new wastefulness and ecological destruction, the book also looks at how regionalism has also tended to confine, tearing apart societies and promoting destructive consumerist tourism.

Preface: The Never Ending Challenge of Regionalism. Introduction: The End of Geography? 1. The Regional and the Classical Imperial 2. The First Regionalist Building-Manifesto 3. A Flat Archipelago of Garden-Villas 4. ‘Consult the Genius of the Place in All’ 5. From the Decorated Farm to the Rise of Patriotic Regionalism 6. From Regions to Nation 7. Gothic Communalism and Nationalist Regionalism 8. Homelands, World-Fairs, Living-spaces, and the Regional Cottage 9. International Style versus Regionalism 10. Regionalism Rising 11. Regionalism Redefined 12. Regionalism Now

Alexander Tzonis is Professor at Tsinghua University and Professor Emeritus at the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands.

Liane Lefaivre is the Chair of Architectural History and Theory at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and a research associate in the Urbanism Department at the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands.

Together, they are the authors of Critical Regionalism. Architecture and Identity in a Globalizing World.