Fundamentals is the title and theme of the Architecture Biennale in Venice next year and was given by Rem Koolhaas. There are actually two issues at stake: First of all, it is about the inevitable, unchangeable elements that every architect, Koolhaas insinuates, uses ‘anytime anywhere’, like: door, floor, ceiling and so on. Secondly, we are talking about the evolution of national architectures over the last 100 years, that is, since the beginning of World War I. Koolhaas assumes that specific and local architectures have disintegrated in the context of globalization, making national identities more or less interchangeable.
A quick glance at Tyrol, or any other region, may call up characteristic images that articulate uniqueness to the region. In this case, what are the distinctive elements that make Tyrolean architecture ‘Tyrolean’? Do we examine material qualities that might point to an origin of architectural form that at one point was dependent upon locally […]
