Cultural regionalism in Hungarian context

As an introduction to the thematic issue of Hungarian Studies Yearbook, dedicated to Regionalism in culture – cultural regionalism, the article offers an overview of current research interests in the field. Within the domain of Hungarian studies, regional approaches and the idea of cultural areas as an important frame for cultural analysis and comparison was present in research work from the 19th century. After a general introduction, the article presents the current methodological approaches to regionalism studies and the main topics debated in the fields of literary studies, linguistics, and cultural anthropology.

Opera against the Odds

Until 1864, provincial opera operated within a Napoleonic system designed to ensure hierarchically ordered provision for large and smaller towns nationwide and in the colonies. Discussion of how the system worked, how it was funded, how it served indirectly to erase regional difference, and how raw material from Paris (Grand Opera and the voice types it required) became too expensive, helps explain why the system was already at a breaking point by the 1830s, catalyzing heated local and local–national debates. The significance of provincial opera’s travails, its competitors in the entertainment sector from café-concert to radio, and the importance of two regional triumphs—Wagner and open-air opera—become clear in the light of this Paris-generated organizational history. Considerations of decentralization shift at this point to those of the tensions between genre of “national opera” and the centrifugal forces of cultural regionalism (with its attendant identitarian concerns), using the nature and significance of operatic “local color” as a test bed.

Wybuchowa Walencja. Futurystyczna wyobraźnia i siła tradycji w kreowaniu obrazu przestrzeni miejskich. Konkurencja i konflikt czy współistnienie i pochwała różnorodności?

This article presents selected districts of Valencia and the gradual transformation of their image. The formulation of an appropriate strategy of action and the effect of an example that were initiated by the construction of the City of Arts and Sciences have broken through the stagnation in thinking about space. Revitalisation efforts have been initiated in many of the city’s districts, as well as in its suburban zone. The great explosion of ideas and emotions also carried over to expanding the historical traditions of the city and the holistic, multi-directional approach to the subject matter of renewal, providing the city with economic stimulation. The author’s own analyses presented in the article pertain to Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences), the new development of the Poblats Marítims coastal district, the Ciutat Fallera district and the Orba district of the town of Alfafar, located in Valencia’s metropolitan area. Various proposals for transforming the spatial structure of these districts point to the possibility of conducting an experimental hybrid policy intended to reconcile economic rescaling, entrepreneurship and cultural regionalism in the planned landscape.

Explosive Valencia – futuristic imagination and the power of tradition in creating the image of urban spaces. Competition and conflict, or coexistence and praise of diversity?

Selected districts of Valencia and the gradual transformation of their image are presented in this article. The formulation of an appropriate strategy of action and the effect of an example that were initiated by the construction of the City of Arts and Sciences have broken through the stagnation in thinking about space. Revitalisation efforts have been initiated in many of the city’s districts, as well as in its suburban zone. The great explosion of ideas and emotions also carried over to enhancing the historical traditions of the city and the holistic, multi-directional approach to the subject matter of renewal, providing the city with economic stimulation. The author’s own analyses presented in the article pertain to: Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences), the new development of the Poblats Maritims coastal district, the Ciutat Fallera district and the Orba district of the town of Alfafar, located in Valencia’s metropolitan area. Various proposals for transforming the spatial structure of these districts point to the possibility of conducting an experimental hybrid policy intended to reconcile economic rescaling, entrepreneurship and cultural regionalism in the planned landscape.

CONTRIBUTION OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN TO CRITICAL REGIONALISM: ANALYSING SUSTAINABILITY EFFECTIVENESS IN VERNACULAR URBAN BUILDING

Environmentalism as the overall concept of ecological architecture is defined as the inter-relations between people, and how built forms affect the surroundings through design, reflecting the impact of technology, human principles of living with nature, and of social connections in communities. Modern ecological designs have smart solutions in planning climatic zones, with optimised natural lighting to lower energy use, and reduce wastage. Passive thermal comfort methods and spatial alignment of buildings to sun orientation have brought the ideals of organic architecture full circle since the “sparse and scarce” principles of technological design limitations guided vernacular urbanism over time. Today’s modern buildings, abstracted from mass-produced designs, are shaped to trends and tastes, bringing attention to the artificial materiality of architectural forms and the hidden costs of innovations. To understand the relevance of sustainable strategies in developing critical regionalism, this paper reviews the scope of ecological architecture principles application for temperate climates, and examines the viability of strategies as passive cooling, thermal comfort and greenery-based ventilation. Through case study discussions of two Malaysian eco-architectural designers, Ken Yeang and Kevin Mark Low, it will also be argued that the spirit of nationalism and cultural regionalism can be integrated effectively into urban built forms.

Contrary Regionalisms and Noisy Correspondences: The BBC in Northern Ireland circa 1949

This essay examines the limits and possibilities of the mid-century broadcasting field in Northern Ireland, by attending to the dynamic interplay at the BBC's Belfast station of three competing regional formations: the political regionalism of the Northern Irish state; the cultural regionalism of a coterie of Northern Irish writers and intellectuals; and the broadcasting regionalism instituted as part of the BBC's policy of national programming. These contrary regionalisms each had different and, at times, competing criteria for what constituted particular and typical details of life in the North, and broadcasters had to negotiate the inexact correspondences among them with ears tuned to the political relations triangulated by Belfast, Dublin, and London. Beginning with a consideration of how broadcasters in Northern Ireland produced forms of mediated actuality both in and beyond the studio, the essay concludes with Sam Hanna Bell's This is Northern Ireland (1949), a feature that explores the tension of overspill and containment effected less by the partition of Ireland than by the contradictions inherent to the broadcasting field.