Architecture as an expression of a place's geography

The history of architecture taught us that there is a bound relationship between materials, building technologies and the environment’s status. This remark is not just restricted to “building culture” but sparks even tighter relations between a place’s geography and their latitudes. The shapes of contemporary architecture are the results of a historical-critical elaboration that developed in particular at the turn of “modern times”, between the ending of the First World War and the last years of the 70’s, with peaks of significant speed-growing transformations during the 50’s and 60’s. These are the decades in which the shapes of the International Style turned gradually into the contemporary language of architecture, from the development of brand new building methods and from being rooted in local traditions, to the “Critical Regionalism” skillfully theorized studies by Kenneth Frampton as results. Two peculiarly important phenomena of this transition can be spotted in the architectures of the “Case Study Houses” in California and in those of the “Sarasota School” in Florida. They were sprung from different conditions however that gave quite similar results regarding the style expression. In Los Angeles John Entenza published in his magazine “Arts & Architecture” several contests in order to design new residential buildings, with the clear intention to embody the modern American dream. An experiment in which the biggest architects of that time took part, such as Richard Neutra, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig and Eero Saarinen and others. During the same years in Sarasota a group of architects among Paul Rudolph, Ralph Twitchell, Victor Lundy, Philip Hiss, Gene Leedy, Carl Abbot and others, started a critical review of building methods, especially focusing on the weather conditions, supported by the use of big openings, innovative ventilation systems and a close study of the environment. Investigating these phenomena means finding the roots of modernity in order to comprehend the relationship existing between architectural languages, the building culture and the places’ geography.