Critical and sustainable regions in architecture: The case of blueprint demonstration farm

The ontological purpose of this study is to understand how developments in architectural technology are related to the social construction of places. The political purpose of this study is to understand why Blueprint Farm at Laredo, Texas--in spite of its promise as a demonstration of sustainable technology for semi-arid ecosystems--was terminated by the very institutions responsible for its production.;Modern theories of architecture have generally embraced technology as the means by which cultural goals are realized and opposed the traditional concept of place as a progressive social end. In contrast, postmodern theories of architecture have generally questioned the dominance of technology in contemporary life and recuperated the concept of place. The mere reversal of this modern dualism by postmodern thought has, however, only reinforced the seeming opposition between means and ends, technologies and places.;In the field of contemporary architectural theory, Kenneth Frampton's hypothesis for Critical Regionalism in architecture appears to offer a synthesis to the dualism of technology and place as constructed by modernist thought. Through the investigation of a single case of architecture, this inquiry provides evidence which supports the renovation of Frampton's hypothesis as a nonmodern theory of architecture. By rejecting the dialectic separation of human subjects and nonhuman objects as the foundation of Critical Regionalism, I propose grafting Frampton's hypothesis to a hermeneutic-dialogic paradigm that reconciles his position with progressive environmentalism.;The ethnographic methods used to reconstruct the story of Blueprint Farm reflect the Critical Constructivist assumptions of the inquiry. The dialogic structure of the text creates an interpretive exchange between myself, local respondents, and the literature that informs our understanding of the politics inscribed in Blueprint Farm. The study is summarized by eight propositions that interpret the events that took place on the Farm. These local propositions are in turn generalized as eight points for the extension of Critical Regionalism as a nonmodern manifesto for architectural production.