During the 7th SP&S seminar Liane Lefaivre presented some of the history of the polemics surrounding the issue ‘regionalism’ in the Post World War II world. By reviewing the discourse on regionalism which took place in the US between the 1930s and 60s she demonstrated how planning and design styles rapidly changed under the influence of economic crisis, political agitation and, to a large extend, powerful people and institutions. She showed that ideas are vulnerable. She, however, also argued that ideas are adaptations of earlier ideas. In her point of view the growing interest in sustainable spatial development is, as it assigns organizational capacity to the specificities of places, a form of regionalism.
Liane Lefaivre not only gave an inspiring presentation on an, for most of the SP&S members, unfamiliar subject (we were very happy to welcome an audience from the architectural chairs!) but also introduced a new presentation format by reading a chapter of her latest book. This book should be available in Bouwkunde’s bookstore: The Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization. Hills and Valleys of a Flat World (London, Routledge, 2012).
