In the 1980s “critical regionalism” or “modern regionalism” became an intellectual term that analyzed or defined postcolonial architecture as “a decided reaction to normative, universal standards, practices, forms, and technological and economic conditions” (Eggener, 2002). According to Kenneth Frampton, critical regionalism cultivates a contemporary place-oriented culture, as a counterpart to a “placeless, consumption-driven ‘Megalopolis’.” It focuses much more on a process or method than on a style or design as a product (Eggener, 2002). But in this analysis as a form of resistance to a universalistic force, for Eggener critical regionalism is highly problematic in its application relating to authority, as if it needed exactly that to form itself. Even though Tzonis and Lefaivre described critical regionalism as “not an expression of identity for so-called ‘peripheral’ regions,” but more as a global problem, Eggener comments that for these writers the “major cities of Europe and the United States were the centers that made possible critical regionalism’s ‘anti-centrist consensus’.” (Eggener 2002)
In the 1950s in Europe, defining forces who earlier had set the universalistic into a binary opposition to the traditional/regional architecture had begun to crumble.The CIAM manuscripts by Siegfried Gideon concentrated on concepts like emotions versus intellect, feelings versus analysis, and an implied primitivism.
In 1953 Minnette de Silva, CIAM representative for India and Ceylon, approached regional modern architecture combining old handcrafts and skills with modern construction methods and the use of local materials, allowing for the construction of modern low-price houses. De Silva was strongly influenced by Lewis Mumford’s writings and, according to Liane Lefaivre, she was one of the first architects who adopted a practice of “modern regional architecture.” (Lefaivre/Tzonis 2001) By blending traditional and vernacular designs from different places and times she developed a kind of trans-regionalism of its own kind. Although Minnette de Silva was part of CIAM, her text on modern regional architecture was not even noted in the CIAM archive.
In their book Critical Regionalism, Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre trace what might articulate the history of the relationship between space and regionalism. Starting where most Western histories cite examples of how the Greeks and Romans treated climate and local styles, they identify the (English) picturesque movement of the 17th century and the idea of the de-centered landscape and “chaotic” nature as it evolved as a form of resistance to the (French) symmetric absolutist aesthetic regime of Baroque and as a predecessor of today’s understanding of regionalism. Focused on rural and “pure” Arcadian landscape, the movement turned into what is now commonly known as romantic regionalism – a concept extracting ethnological and vernacular elements in order to create a culturally unified region with a distinct tradition associated with it. During the 19th century, romantic regionalism was entirely absorbed by nationalist movements throughout Europe, culminating in its worst manifestation in the German Heimat of the 1920s and 30s.
At the same time, in the US the Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) was founded in New York City in 1922 by a trans-disciplinary group of professionals. Among them were planners such as Clarence Stein, Henry Wright, Clarence Perry, and Benton MacKaye , developing the “regional city,” an anti-urban network of suburban satellite towns. The association itself was discontinued 10 years after its founding, but the ideas particularly promoted the neighborhood unit concept, which was subsequently appropriated by many planners globally, from Europe to China, India, Israel, and also the Soviet Union. Influential for the RPAA were the ideas of Lewis Mumford, a self-trained architecture critic who disapproved of the American architecture of the machine age as merely profit-driven, leading to soulless, monotonous, and inhumane environments where the utilitarian engineer had replaced the architect. By looking at the history of American architecture, Mumford pleaded for a reconsideration of the “harmonious balance between the natural and the social environment” and the essential elements, “the interests, standards, and institutions” that gave buildings of earlier times their form. (Mumford, 1924) Mumford was attacked by the proponents of the New Architecture Movement, not only for turning to the past but for evoking the tight and complex relationship between the built, the social, and its geographical location of gravitating towards the nationalist tendencies of romantic regionalism. (Tzonis/Lefaivre ) Although during a short intermezzo in the 1940s when Elizabeth Mock replaced Philip Johnson in his position as chief curator at MOMA, a number of regionalist oriented exhibitions were put on display, among them one compiled by Bernard Rudofsky; this was of course quickly changed back after Johnson’s return.
Rudofsky did not return to the MOMA until 1964 (1), but in the meantime in Europe the Congres International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) faced a number of conflicts of internal and external nature, one of which can be described as the crisis of universalistic architecture and an increasing orientation towards site-specific approaches and methodologies. This became particularly clear in the 1953 congress in Aix-en-Provence, when a younger generation, including the Smithsons, ATBAT-Afrique, and members of the Dutch subgroup presented a number of unprecedented questions and answers to the congress.
Groups that had to deal with processes of decolonization amplified this tendency. In India and Sri Lanka for example, trying to come to terms with its colonial past and growing nationalist tendencies after 1947, regionalism meant much more than focusing on architecture suitable for a tropical climate. Architectural debates in the post-colonial and post-partition era in India were confronted with the need for low-cost housing for refugees and in rural areas, whereby cost-efficiency became the dominating perspective. In Chandigarh, for example, many buildings were built with locally produced bricks due to their affordability.
Following the Argentine architect and theorist Marina Weismann, who proposes the word “divergence” rather than “resistance,” it is arguable that “architecture of a regionalist character is not primarily a reaction to the West, or to ‘worlds culture’, as the word resistance would imply, but a response to local circumstances.” (Eggener, 2002)
Furthermore, the term region or regional became important as part of nation building. With the UN International Exhibition on Low Cost Housing in Delhi in 1954, which included a Regional Seminar on Housing & Community and a South East Asia Regional Conference, regionalism became a program that was connected to governmental housing and planning issues in addition to being a practice.
(MH+CL)

(1) Rudofsky’s famous show “architecture without architects” was held at MOMA in1964.

Sources:
De Silva, Minette. (1953): "A House in Kandy." In: Marg-Pathway, Issue VI/3. 4-11.
Eggener, Keith L. (2002): "Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism." In: Journal of Architectural Education, 55/4. 228-237.
Kenneth Frampton (1983): "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points for an architecture of resistance." In: Foster, Hal: Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture. Seattle: Bay Press. 16-30.
Mumford, Lewis (1924): Sticks and Stones. A Study of American Landscape and Civilization. New York: Norton & Comp.
Mumford, Lewis (2007): "Excerpts from the South in Architecture (first published in 1947)." In: Canizaro, Vincent B. (Ed.): Architectural Regionalism. Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 96-101.
Jaqueline Tyrwhit (1954): Report on the seminar on Housing and Community Planning (for the UN). Delhi.
Tzonis, Alexander/Lefaivre, Liane/Stagno, Bruno (2001): Tropical Architecture. Chichester: Wiley-Academy.
Tzonis, Alexander/Lefaivre, Liane (2003): Towards a critical Regionalism. Architecture and Identity in a Globalized World. München: Prestel.
Thyrwitt, Jaqueline (Ed.) (1947). Patrick Geddes in India. London: Lund, Humphries.