Concepts
Contextualism
Design Principle
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
The principle that a new building should be designed in active relation to what already surrounds it, respecting or deliberately playing against the scale, materials, street line and character of its neighbors, rather than being conceived as an object indifferent to its site. It became an explicit teaching doctrine at Cornell University in the early 1960s under the historian Colin Rowe and his students, and it underlies both ordinary historic district design review and the knowing quotation of nearby buildings in postmodern work.
Facts
Concept Domain Formulated YearThe commonly cited start of Colin Rowe's Cornell studio teaching that formalized contextualism as an explicit doctrine. Cross-Tradition Connections
Influenced
Postmodern architecture's knowing quotation of neighboring buildings and streetscapes draws directly on contextualist doctrine.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.