We were walking in Barcelona a few months ago, and we noticed something about how this city breathes. You’ve got these green waves of Gaudí from over a century ago and these glass towers, and it just seems to work. It made us think about this waltz that we’re in, this never-ending waltz in architecture, how do you pay respect to where we’ve been without losing it?
The thing is, architecture isn’t exactly about building buildings. It’s more of a process of telling stories. Each culture leaves its mark on stone and steel, the arrangement of spaces, and the way light comes into a room. We’ve discovered that the distances we’ve ever gone are the places where you could sense that cultural DNA imparted in the very fabric of space itself. Even in modern life, whether walking through centuries-old courtyards or carrying small essentials with us in the form of portable detectors, which you can check here, the layers of culture and technology remind us how tradition and innovation move side by side.
What is remarkable about cultural identity as expressed through architecture is the manner in which it declares itself in small things. We recall strolling past a centuries-old courtyard house in Seville, the manner in which the rooms were curved around that inner court wasn’t a matter of style. It was centuries of experiment to find out how to build cool, livable rooms in the hot climate. We were told by the family that owned it that their great-grandfather built it based on methods that he had learned from his own family.
This is what cultural identity is all about, it’s not just ornament that wraps a building. It’s a whole way of seeing space that emerges out of history, out of the way in which people have come to occupy a space. Language dictates how we name and organize our cities. Art convention manifests in materiality and measure. Religious belief dictates how we align buildings and place sacred space.
We’ve been encountering more and more architects who get this, who realize that culture isn’t something to wave at, it’s a living database of information that can be used to inform every decision from the ground up.
Learning from the Past
We’ve always been interested in traditional architecture because it’s actually a manual of solutions. Those thick adobe walls of Santa Fe, for instance? Gorgeous not only for looks, gorgeous for cooling homes in the summer and heating them in the winter and no air conditioning needed. We spent a week photographing some of these homes, and the owners were just commenting on how cool the homes remained naturally even in hot weather.
The more we learn about precedent in history, the more we’re aware of how much we have to learn. Alhambra’s stunning geometric designs aren’t just stunning, there’s this incredible dance of light and shadow that goes around them during the daytime. Japanese Minka homes, with post-and-beam construction and moveable interior partitions, were able to achieve the open floor plan centuries before we did.
What intrigues us most is how contemporary architects are taking inspiration from these traditions. We learn about an Indian firm that is sourcing ideas from ancient Vastu principles in new home design, not nostalgia but because the principles actually give more livable rooms. It’s tradition as innovation, and this is the most genuine route.
The Push Forward
But come on, we’re not building for medieval villages anymore. The problems we are facing now are alternative problems, and some of them are new problems. Climate change, urbanization, resource shortages, these demand new thinking.
We’ve been learning about some of the work being done in parametric design and adaptive building skins, and we have to say, it’s super cool stuff. There’s one of the buildings in Singapore that has a breathing facade, one that opens and closes based on temperature and humidity. The technology for how they accomplish this is super high-end, but the idea, adaptive buildings that respond to the environment, is older than dirt.
The aspect of being architects that we love the most nowadays is the technology we are dealing with. We can do any project anywhere in the world through BIM software. With 3D printing, we’re discovering new shapes and textures that you simply can’t achieve otherwise. Smart building systems will save 30 to 40 percent in energy use.
The secret, we think, is not to see these innovations apart from cultural heritage but as new expressions of age-old values like harmony with nature, membership in society, and convenience to human beings.
Where the Rubber Meets the Road
This is where it becomes difficult. In the real world, the battle between innovation and tradition most often turns on extremely specific, sometimes boring choices. Do we employ local stone that is three times more expensive than imported material? How do we interpret historical proportions in a building that must comply with modern accessibility regulations?
We’ve had projects where we’d spend months to get in-place wind-catching towers into a new office tower. It was tough engineering, the client questioned the cost, and the permitting problem took an eternity. But when we finished and people started working in those naturally ventilated spaces, everyone appreciated why it mattered.
Sometimes the solutions just stare in your face. Adaptive reuse works because you’re working from something that is already historic, just determining how to make it historic in new ways. We’re talking about taking that old Manchester mill and renovating it as artists’ studios. The developers retained the giant timbered pillars and the brick fronts, but incorporated modern touches on lighting and heating. The answer feels historic and completely modern.
Public opinion matters too. The projects we have examined in recent history which function best are “those where architects took the time to listen to the public.” There’s “one co-op complex in Copenhagen” where the architects conducted dozens of neighborhood meetings “trudged on walking tours” even took cooking classes in their efforts to attempt to see how people wanted to live. The completed building drew on classical Danish ideas of public space and hygge but expressed them through new materials and energy harvesting systems.
The Real Challenges
We’re not going to sugarcoat that this is a cinch. Economic forces for standardization are strong, there’s a reason you see the same glass box replicated in cities all over the world. Developers will opt for lowest-cost, quickest solution, and that usually requires wiping clean whatever appears site-specific or culturally specific.
And then there are practical restrictions. The old materials no longer exist, or the master craftsmen who understand how to work them no longer exist. Building codes established for modern construction methods will not be formulated to include older techniques, even when they suit regional conditions.
The market complicates it as well. We’ve had customers who love the idea of cultural authenticity in the abstract but get nervous when their projects are juxtaposed with newer foreign-style structures elsewhere, supposedly moreWow. to tenants or buyers.
But what’s encouraging is that the projects that excel in the connection between innovation and tradition are able to hold up amazingly well over time. They are of place without being antiquated. They speak to people more deeply. They do better ecologically because they’re working in harmony with, not against, conditions.
We believe that we are at a time where more people, developers, clients, even planners, are realizing that generic architecture is more expensive in the long run. Buildings that don’t take context and culture into account are more expensive to power with energy, more to repair, and more to fill with people who care.
The most exciting things we’re seeing today are the things that build upon what they know now, iterating from what has been done instead of replacing it. It’s not new versus old, it’s about finding the integration that attends to both human need and cultural continuity. That’s the debate we need to keep having as we build tomorrow’s cities. For a deeper dive into the impact of cultural identity on architecture, check out resources from the American Institute of Architects.
