Concealed within architecture is a gathering of time and joining of spaces through the admission of place defining elements. These elements act to preserve the continuous reinterpretation of our being on earth. Man’s current fascination with the growth and limits of our precinct has reduced the home to a mere container for man’s pursuits, forsaking his rich nature among things.
What’s needed is an architecture that questions the nature of our dwelling, preserves and assembles that which is already there, and installs place-defining elements. Toward that end, this thesis seeks an architecture that provides for the synthetic translation of notions expressed by critical regionalism, sustainability, and the prospect of a northwest regionalism.
Drawing from phenomenology and Martin Heidegger toward a fundamental understanding of critical regionalism describes the mode of this discourse. The Pacific Northwestern vernacular traditions combined with contemporary translations, use of colloquial materials and sensitivity to place characterize an ideal venue from which to analyze the state of such architecture. These precedents allow for an architectural image of critical regionalist ideology. Principles and patterns gathered from this analysis are tested with a design proposal for six homes located on the South Umpqua River in Oregon. The self-referential nature of this design will preserve a process through which architecture seeks to question the parochial relationship between man and place.