Ronald Rael

18081 County Road E75

Antonito, Colorado 81120

(303) 877-5345

r@el.net

ABSTRACT:

Earth Architecture in the Context of Modernity:  A Counter History of Modern Architecture

Throughout the history of modern architecture, architects have embraced earth as a building material, however this work is scarcely documented.  Architects such as Le Corbusier, Hassan Fathy, Frank Lloyd Wright, Herzog + de Meuron, Rudolph Shindler, Martin Rauch, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Luis Barragan, François Jourda, Sverre Fehn and Samuel Mockbee are only a few of the important architects who have shaped this counter history of modernity.  Within this counter history can be seen as a hybridized architecture stemming from a collision between traditional and industrialized building practices, embodying the critical issues of ecology, technique, type, economy and politics that surround modernity