This seminar investigates a new generation of architects who practice within a critique of globalization; a disdain for the impacts of "flat world" labor, material supply and environmental impacts; and an exploration of both form and architectural production that is profoundly local in material, construction craft and technique, capacity building and sustainability (environmental, social, economic and cultural). In the hands of the most talented of these architects, these attitudes lead to fresh, elegant and leading edge architecture. These practices provide an insight into a shift of the international conversation around architecture away from Europe and North America. Included in the course are Wang Shu (China), Bijoy Jain (India), Nina Maritz (Nambia), Vo Trong Nghia (Vietnam) and many others. The course will look at the historical and theoretical context of these practices. In his erudite 1995 book The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture: The Incomplete Project, Colin St. John Wilson describes the cleaving of architecture into "architecture" as a fine art and "building" as a functional and technological activity. While the arguments he presents may cause of twinge of worry about a return to a conservative canon, in fact, the purpose of his book is to open a conversation about the reintegration of these two pieces of a whole. While St. John Wilson is focused on European modernism, the hegemony of CIAM and the post-war inklings of a return to holistic notions of architecture in the work of architects like Aalto, this course posits that the most robust contemporary examples of this work are actually in non-European settings. This is due to very specific historical and global conditions. Like the post-war Finland where Aalto worked, developing countries around the world face resource restrictions, have dire need for maintenance and development of local building technologies and labor pools, and have talented architects who are savvy about global trends and about the benefits of contemporary design practices. Heaped on top of the challenges Aalto faced, these architects face myriad environmental challenges ranging from the sourcing of materials to the energy consumption of their buildings. They are also usually working in post-colonial settings where questions of visual, cultural and political identity are part and parcel of the meanings they must fold into their buildings.

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