Sustainable Regionalism in Architecture: A Framework of Principles and Components

Abstract

The current perspective essay highlights the underpinnings of sustainable architecture and addresses the assumption that regional architecture theory has entered a new stage of its evolutionary trend. In this view, instead of being affected by globalization, the regions should, in a local-global interactive system, comply with the complicated interdependencies which are physical, social, cultural, and more importantly, ecological. This study aims to propose and categorize principles and components of a theoretical framework based on current thinking and approaches underlined by both sustainability and regionalism studies in architecture. Also, framework and thematic analysis guided the analysis stage. By employing the qualitative content analysis and based on the logic of inductive reasoning, the textual data and the architectural experiences mentioned in the study are analyzed, and by eliciting the concepts hidden inside them, we gradually could reach to the more abstract levels of sustainable regionalism, the result of which is obtaining a theoretical framework which show the interior disciplines and the frequent patterns of the regionalism as well as sustainable architecture. The best practices of contemporary architecture indicate that the current approaches to regionalism are to moderate the biased and limiting previous thoughts and empower the environmental attitude and the use of sustainable development’s privileges, and brings in conclusion “Sustainable Regionalism.”