Regionalism and Modernity

With its search for purity, honesty, modesty, and "fitness of purpose," the late nineteenth and early twentieth century concept of architectural regionalism is seminal to the modern movement. In later historiography, however, regionalism in Europe was neglected and even labeled "(Bbackward." The origins of this drastic change of perception can be traced to the 1930s, when regionalism as a positive form gradually turned into a "(Bclosed" form of regionalism, a folding back on one's own region as a defense mechanism in an economically and politically turbulent decade. In this book, internationally-renowned researchers investigate the complex and shifting relation between regionalism and modernity in the architecture of Western Europe between the two World Wars, with a focus on Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Great Britain. They demonstrate that regionalism cannot be separated from modernity, but is in fact a way of dealing with modernity and its contradictions. Applied to architecture, regionalism is a means to moderate modernism, to embed the design in its local surroundings. It is seen as a result of the search for identity in a modernizing and globalizing world where tensions