Contextualism in contemporary urban architecture

Abstract

Contextualism is generally regarded as a tendency to draw a connecting line between a building and its surroundings. This is always an interesting challenge and a point of argument in contemporary urban architecture. This thesis is about the ideas and practices of contextualism as they relate to architecture in cities. It presents an overall theoretical review and survey of this concept, covering a variety of design ideologies current in the western urban architecture. It is also a critique and an exploration of these design strategies. Based on the review and critique, the research addresses a comprehensive approach to contextualism in urban architecture. This research identifies Colin Rowe's urban architecture approach (known as Collage City) as contextualism in its original sense. The study also investigates various interpretations of contextualism, catalogued as the Empiricist, Experientialist, Post-Modern Historicist, Post-Modern Classicist, Late-Modernist and Rationalist approaches. The author of this thesis points out that the conventional definition of the term contextualism is narrow, restrictive and incomplete. It is thought of merely as a procedure for "matching" new additions to the style and scale of the existing context. Concern with the immediate physical surroundings of a building and pursuit of a sympathetic visual continuity between a building and its context is considered the essential content of contextualism. According to this research, such interpretations grossly misrepresent Rowe's original concept. This research intends to establish a broader and more complete definition of contextualism, one where the scope of the context of a building can be extended from the immediate surroundings to larger and regional urban conditions, from the physical settings to historical and cultural contexts. The broad definition also enables the author to investigate various design strategies, including not only the sympathetic matching between new and old, but also creative reinterpretations of the surrounding features; not only a complete resolution of parts (known as "mediation"), but also a collage of parts or a collision between parts. In this study, an analytical framework is provided for a comparative analysis of different contextual approaches. This framework helps to identify their commonalities and differences, their strengths and limitations. It places these approaches within an overall theoretical perspective. Finally, a comprehensive understanding and approach to contextualism in urban architecture, and the inspirations contextualism can give to the contemporary urban and architectural design professions are addressed as the conclusions of this thesis.