Regionalism and the Humanities

4. A Border Runs through It: Looking at Regionalism through Architecture in the Southwest

4. A Border Runs through It Looking at Regionalism through Architecture in the Southwest maggie valentine Ableached cow skull hangs on the wall next to an old poster of the El Tovar Hotel. Beneath both of them are pigskin and cedar chairs. Hand-woven rugs with red diamond patterns expose the tile floor. Next to the thick, cream-colored walls are Indian baskets, a statue of a howling coyote in profile, and an antique armoire, its wood panels cracked and dry. There is a cactus on the windowsill, and outside a ristra hangs drying in the sun. On the mantel, carved into the beehive corner fireplace, are dried ears of corn, a punched-tin light fixture, a figurine of Kokopelli playing a flute, small baskets, and a molcajete made of volcanic stone. The sounds of a Spanish guitar fill the room. Is it a stereotype or satire, a picture from a bed-and-breakfast brochure or a typical living room in Santa Fe? Or is it a stage set? All of the above. Nearby are anonymous strip malls and big-box outlets surrounded by acres of asphalt. The neighborhoods in this part of the country are subject to the same homogenizing sprawl as the rest of America. The region is getting its fair share of boomburbs (a rapidly growing, urban -sized place in the suburbs), clustered worlds (similar houses sold to similar people at similar prices), logo buildings (golden arches), mall glut, gridlock, cul-de-sac pods, sitcom suburbs, snout houses (garage A Border Runs through It 57 door dominating the front facade), and zoomburbs (a place growing even faster than a boomburb, such as Sun City, Arizona).1 These two images are contemporary. Both are southwestern; both are American. Like every region, the Southwest is simultaneously typical of the larger area and unique unto itself. Focusing on region allows us to discover how we are different and how we are similar. It helps identify who we are. Regional architecture—like regional dialects , music, and food—reveal both the past and the present in terms of values, lifestyles, and place. They are maps to where we are and how we got there. Regionalism provides a context to understand the role that place plays in human activity and creations. Overlapping frameworks of geography , nation, state, region, community, and neighborhood operate as different lenses for examining the contexts that place provides. The term context, derived from the Latin contexere, means “to weave together ”; each yarn, spun from many strands, has its own quality, de- fined by color, material, and texture. When woven with other yarns, the completed tapestry reveals a larger picture or pattern formed by the varied yarns and threads. The cultural strands that make up the yarns of region give a visual and historical context through which to explore meanings of the whole. The tapestry of architecture is one such context. It is physical evidence of history and how people lived, formed by function and fashion . Architecture both shapes and is shaped by the way we see the world, yet it is restricted by the physical environment of climate, material , and technology. Regionalism in architecture refers to buildings and spaces that express the unique character of a geographical area— what viticulturists call terroir or architects refer to as genius loci, the spirit or essence of place—translated into three-dimensional form. The built environment is at once both art and necessity. While architects deliberately focus on the former, vernacular architecture is shaped primarily by the latter. As a result, the vernacular is often more responsive to that sense of place. It is a direct response to real needs, rather than public images made by the users (not by artists), and must deal with climatic conditions and available materials, instead of relying on 58 sensing pl ace manufactured solutions or promoting a political agenda. Regional vernacular architecture builds on sensory memories and combines them with cultural traditions to produce a distinctive landscape that defines and expresses a sense of place. The boundaries of the region referred to as the Southwest depend on whether one is considering a common geography, imposed political edges, or shared cultural attributes. Since architecture is a direct result of all of these factors, the boundaries overlap. Cultural regions don’t match the colors on political maps; they leak over state and national boundaries here and don’t reach the edges there. While architecture...