In this episode of A is for Architecture, architect, historian, and scholar Stylianos Giamarelos, speaks about his recent book, Resisting Postmodern Architecture: Critical Regionalism Before Globalisation, published by UCL press in 2022. 

Postmodernism reshaped architecture in the late 20th century. Stylianos discusses how in turn, critical regionalism emerged in resistance to postmodernity’s eclecticism, and modernism’s cultural bulldozer, offering as it did (and perhaps still does) a more culturally rooted approach to architecture. The origin story we are told of critical regionalism though, is squiffy. Stylianos argues instead that its emergence was in fact shaped by overlooked voices in architectural history, particularly from regions considered peripheral to modernist architectural narratives. 

We talk through Stylianos’ proposal for a renewed critical regionalism, one that supports the ongoing project of making place and space that sustains communities in a globalised and rhizomatic world.

Stelios is Associate Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and can be found there and on LinkedIn. 

🎧 Listen now for some new-old school fusions!

#Postmodernism #CriticalRegionalism #ArchitecturalTheory #StylianosGiamarelos #KennethFrampton #AlexanderTzonis #LianeLefaivre #AisforArchitecture

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Music credits: ⁠Bruno Gillick

Image credit: [Suzana and Dimitris Antonakakis, first-floor apartment, living room, apartment building at 118 Benaki Street, photographed by Dimitris Antonakakis, 1975 (courtesy: Suzana and Dimitris Antonakakis' private archive].