Regional Responses to Sustainable Architecture in Canada John McMinn and Marco Polo
design that reaches beyond its traditional energy-efficient confines. Frampton argues for an architecture resistant to an over- whelming global and technological culture that threatens local place-identity. ‘Critical Regionalism necessarily involves a more directly dialectical relationship with nature than the more abstract, formal traditions of modern avant-garde architecture allow.’ A contemporary architectural response, that is sustainably appropriate to its context on a variety of levels, would be linked with local traditions of the material culture of the region. This would lead to not only greener but also more meaningful architecture — an architecture that adopts strategies of sus- tainability related to local climatic and geo- graphic conditions, cultural practices and mores, and also participates in a broader critical discourse by engaging sustainability not only as technique or method, but as a cultural paradigm.
To date, the practice of sustainable archi- tecture has largely been understood as an issue of technology and energy performance. Increasingly, it has evolved as a manifes- tation of attempts to harness a variety of natural processes (daylighting, ventilation, gravity flow, etc.). However, for sustainable architecture to fully take hold and bear fruit, it must be understood within the context of cultural sustainability, reflective of the practices and mores of local populations. Though important, the goal of energy ef- ficiency is too limited a model of sustain- ability to capture the public imagination, a critical component of fostering a culture of sustainability as a broader public imperative. This broader, culturally linked understanding of sustainable architecture would naturally involve a regional dimension, where fun- damental design strategies must be closely attuned to local climatic, microclimatic and geological conditions if they are to perform effectively. These strategies include consid- eration of building orientation, location and nature of fenestration and viability of alter- native energy sources (solar collection, wind generation, ground source heating). Locally available materials and regional construction practices that take advantage of local labour skills are also effective strategies for reduc- ing the ecological footprint of construction projects. These strategies have always been staples of vernacular traditions, especially in Canada, where harsh climate, geographic isolation of settlements and limited access to technology demanded the development of vernacular responses, in both aboriginal and early settler architecture, very carefully attuned to local conditions. The cultural argument for architectural sustainability is usefully informed by a criti- cal re-reading of Kenneth Frampton’s 1982 essay “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance”. In particular, section 5 of the essay, “Cul- ture Versus Nature: Topography, Context, Climate, Light and Tectonic Form” raises the possibility of a discourse on sustainable
Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, Merritt, B.C
Busby + Associates Architects
on |site 12
local architecture | in a global world
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