Sensual Regionalism: Reframing Regional Architecture Through Embodied Experience, Climate, and Economic Consciousness

2.1 Critical regionalism: From resistance to productive engagement

Critical Regionalism is a policy that developed in the early 1980s as an approach to mediate the universal and the particular in architecture. Frampton and Mitrašinovic [5] proposed a multi-pronged agenda emphasizing topography, climate, tectonic form, and the tactile over the visual, framing an “architecture of resistance” that counters homogenizing global forces without reverting to nostalgic historicism. The term was introduced by Canizaro [16], who emphasized strategic defamiliarization of local elements to avoid their sentimentalization into kitsch. Over the past two decades, Critical Regionalism has evolved in multiple directions. Dopfer et al. [1] argued that contemporary regionalism should move beyond binary oppositions and instead engage productively with global systems while retaining place-specific qualities. Purnama [7] described ecological regionalism as a framework that combines environmental performance with cultural expression. Ermeydan [6] similarly called for operational structures that translate theoretical positions into design methodology, a gap this paper addresses through the Sensual Regionalism framework. Overall, these developments indicate a broader shift from critique toward synthesis and constructive engagement.

2.2 Architectural phenomenology: The body in space

The phenomenon school of architecture stipulates that the physical world of the built environment must be initially experienced by the body, not through visual organization but by touch, heat, sound, smell, kinesthesia, and proprioception.

Kotradyová and Vavrinsky [17] criticized the ocular centrism of the architectural language, which states that the experience of architecture is essentially multi-sensory in nature and that the visual hegemony has created poor spatial conditions. Ireland [18] made this applicable to design practice, showing that light, material, and spatial progression can produce architecture that makes scientific appeal to the whole range of embodied perception.

Beighle et al. [12] proposed techniques for designing atmospheric conditions, but not visual compositions, based on the idea of architectural atmosphere. Seamon [13] applied Merleau-Ponty’s embodied perception to the analysis of architecture and establishes evaluation criteria of bodily interaction with space [19]. Sinnamon and Miller [20] connected phenomenological claims to findings from neuroscience, while Cuentas and Bernedo-Moreira [21] provide quantitative evidence linking multisensory design to improved occupant well-being. Despite the richness of this strand, translating phenomenological insights into operational design requirements remains challenging, a gap described by Beighle et al. [12] as a “methodology deficit”.

2.3 Bioclimatic design and vernacular intelligence

The climate imperative has stimulated a resurgence of interest in the vernacular strategies of building that coded centuries of environmental adaptation. Nagasue et al. [10] reported passive cooling technologies in Southeast Asia, where a 4–6 ℃ temperature decrease was realized by traditional spatial arrangement. The effectiveness of traditional Egyptian spatial typologies in terms of environmental performance was demonstrated by Qaed and Abdulrahman [11], who quantified the thermal performance of Egyptian courtyard houses. He et al. [3] proposed a system for translating vernacular strategies into contemporary sustainable design and test it through Moroccan case studies. Tekin et al. [2] presented biophilic regionalism as a fusion of principles of biophilic design and regional adaptation, while Hassanen [8] framed sustainable regionalism, which is a concept that combines the principles of climate neutrality and cultural articulation. Quayson [4] focused on vernacular architecture in the Anthropocene and argues that traditional climate-change adaptation strategies are tested, low-cost, and potentially useful for addressing contemporary challenges. Quayson [4] focused on vernacular architecture in the Anthropocene and argues that traditional climate-change adaptation strategies are tested, low-cost, and potentially useful for addressing contemporary challenges. Albunni [22] further explored the relationship between natural material systems and architectural expression through the study of sandscapes, highlighting how environmental materials can shape spatial and cultural identity in architecture.

2.4 Economic frameworks for regional practice

The economic aspect of regional architecture has theoretically been given relatively less attention, but it is essentially what dictates the possibility of the regional strategies being executed at a large scale [23]. Hernández [24] provided evidence based on the ELEMENTAL incremental housing model that a strategy of initial investment will allow the completion of the user and long-term value creation. Strategies of regional economic development in terms of architecture were recorded by Teodorczyk [25] with the focus on the transfer of skills and the creation of community capacity. Huang et al. [26] presented lifecycle assessment data of both local and imported materials, and it indicates the economic and environmental excellence of the regional material strategies in a variety of contexts. Similarly, Wang [27] surveyed the factors influencing the selection of green construction materials and emphasized the importance of lifecycle assessment in evaluating sustainable architectural practices.

2.5 The integration gap

Although each of the strings is very rich, they feel nearly detached. Climate performance is seldom discussed with regard to phenomenological studies. The quality of experience is rarely taken into consideration by bioclimatic analyses. Neither is dependent upon economic frameworks. This disciplinary dispensability yields partialized knowledge: a building may meet phenomenological standards and miss environmental standards, or meet the standards of climate excellence and provide poor spatial experience. The Sensual Regionalism model presented in this paper will fill this gap directly.

4.1 Publication trends (2020–2024)

The graphical representation of the number of publications published yearly between 2020 and 2024 illustrates the evident and steady growth of the scientific interest within all six thematic units. The theme of Climate-Responsive Design is the most prevalent in absolute terms, rising from 12 publications in 2020 to 38 in 2024 (total: 123; +217%), as the concept of environmental performance and sustainability becomes more urgent in the discourse of architectural research. The representation of Vernacular Architecture is also rather high, as the number of publications increased by 14 to 34 (+143 percent), which means that the interest in local knowledge systems and traditional construction logic remains. Critical Regionalism illustrates the gradual upward trend (+163%), indicating that the theoretical grounds are being kept up-to-date in terms of being re-constructed within the context of the modern environmental and socio-cultural discourses. Material Regionalism also grows bigger (+280%), indicating that the concept of tectonics, locality of resources, and sensual material expression on sustainable design discourse is re-emerging. More notable, though, is the increased rate of growth in Phenomenology/Experience and Economic/Social Factors (+283 and +325), the two clusters that have historically been underemphasized in the discussion of regionalism. Phenomenology/experience increased from 6 studies in 2020 to 23 studies in 2024, indicating a shift toward more human-centered, affective, and embodied approaches in regionalist scholarship. Similarly, the number of research papers that incorporated the concept of economic feasibility, social equity, and the community impact increased by 4 to 17 publications yearly, indicating that the theory of regional architecture increasingly became closer to the development-friendly models, as shown in Figure 4. Even though the accumulated totals are higher than 156 because of thematic overlap, the data show not only quantitative but also conceptual diversification. All of those points point to the idea that modern regionalist studies are undergoing a shift from a rather stylistic or formal preoccupation to a more multidimensional one that incorporates environmental performance, lived experience, material logic, and socio-economic agency.

Figure 4. Sensual regionalism integration model: From theory to practice

Growth rates reported in Table 2 were calculated from the final included corpus (n = 156). For each thematic cluster, N2020 and N2024 represent the number of included studies published in 2020 and 2024, respectively, that were coded as addressing the cluster (themes were treated as non-mutually exclusive). Growth (%) was computed as ((N2024 − N2020) / N2020) × 100, with values rounded to the nearest whole percent.

Table 2. Annual publication distribution by theme (2020–2024)

Some articles discuss more than one theme, which is why the total of the columns is greater than 156. The statistics indicate a rising academic interest in each of the six thematic categories, with the most tremendous increase in economic/social factors (+325) and phenomenology/experience (+283), specifically the two topics that have been determined as the most underrepresented in previous regionalism literature.

4.2 Geographic distribution

Table 3 presented the geographic distribution of the 156 studies reviewed shows a high concentration on the climate-sensitive areas, with the Middle East and North Africa (21.8% n = 34) at the top of the list; especially in countries like Iran, Egypt, Morocco, and Iraq that are highly affected by a hot-arid climate and thus require passive cooling, material adaptation, and culturally oriented design solutions. South Asia (17.9%, n = 28) and Sub-Saharan Africa (11.5%, n = 18) come second and third, respectively, both of which are hot-humid or hot-arid, and that require context-specific responses in architecture, which further indicates the strong connection between environmental stress and regionalist scholarship. East (15.4%) and Europe (14.1%) are areas where continued interest is exhibited, and the regions discuss conservation of heritage and phenomenological theory regularly overlap. Southeast Asia has a moderate but increasing representation of 9.0%, and Latin America 6.4%, mostly in the tropical settings. In comparison, North America has a percentage of 3.9% (n = 6) and indicates that in more industrialized and technologically standardized building settings, regional architecture is still relatively peripheral in academia. On the whole, the evidence shows that production in the field of regional architecture is most active in the regions where the local force of climate and social-environmental issues precondition that locally-specific, climate-responsive design is not just theoretical, but also necessary.

Table 3. Geographic distribution of reviewed studies

4.3 Key research gaps

The review outlines some of the critical gaps in the research that impede the integration of Sensual Regionalism as a sound and powerful analytical and practice framework (illustrated in Table 4). The most urgent gaps of the high priority are the lack of quantitative sensory evaluation instruments because embodiment and phenomenological aspects of architecture are mostly characterized by qualitative interpretation and not by measurable indices, which is why the creation of empirical instruments is essential. On the same note is the lack of evidence on proving a correlation between climatic experience and climate: whereas passive and bioclimatic strategies are often presumed to improve spatial comfort and experiences, few comparative field research tests this association rigorously. Equally, the literature on economic viability has not been well developed, and arguments supporting local materials and regionalization tend to be convincing yet anecdotal without systematic lifecycle cost analysis that can provide policy and professional support. On a medium priority level, there is scant cross-climate validation in the literature, with few studies comparing the performance of similar regional principles across different environmental settings. Long-term post-occupancy assessments are also limited, and this limits information on permanency, human content, and time performance. Lastly, the possibility of a mix between digital technologies and the artisanal knowledge is conceptually rich but empirically very sparse, and it requires an experimental design study that would explore how digital devices can complement instead of de-skilling the local material smarts. All these gaps suggest that there is an urgent necessity to investigate the theoretical claims of modern regional architecture with the help of methodologically rigorous, interdisciplinary, and longitudinal studies.

Table 4. Identified research gaps and priority levels

In order to go beyond the theoretical postulation, the Sensual Regionalism framework is tested against three globally-known projects that are chosen due to the geographic variety of location, climate change, and reported coverage of a variety of framework dimensions.

In Tables 7 and 8, two architectural case studies are compared and contrasted, using the lens of sensual regionalism to explore the contextual and sustainable approaches. Gando Primary School, designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré, exemplifies the high achievement of all the principles by incorporating local materials, participatory building, passive cooling methods and deep community involvement. However, Aedas's Al Bahar Towers demonstrate a strong climatic and cultural responsiveness by their high-tech reinterpretation of the traditional mashrabiya system with lower scores in material regionalism and local economic contribution because of their high-tech dependence.

Table 7. Case study 1: Gando Primary School Diébédo Francis Kéré, Burkina Faso [31]

Table 8. Case study 2: Al Bahar Towers Aedas Architects, Abu Dhabi [32]

6.1 Cross-case synthesis

The three case studies show the power of the framework as an analytic tool. Both community-based initiatives in resource-constrained Sub-Saharan Africa, Gando and Butaro, score HIGH on all six principles, indicating that economic constraint is not a stop to Sensual Regionalism, but rather a launchpad to design excellence that is integrated (Principle 6). The failure of Al Bahar Towers, relevant to material regionalism and economic awareness despite its high-tech technological approach and cultural sensitivity, is a phenomenon that a solely climate-based analysis would overlook, thereby showing the diagnostic usefulness of the six-principal framework.

Within the three case studies examined, stronger alignment with the six Sensual Regionalism principles is associated with more coherent regional performance across experiential, climatic, cultural, material/tectonic, and socio-economic dimensions. Conversely, weaker performance in one or more principles corresponds to observable trade-offs in the reviewed documentation. These findings are indicative rather than universal and should be tested across a larger and more diverse set of projects.

Table 9 will examine the MASS Design Group Butaro Hospital project in Rwanda using the principles of sensual regionalism, which shows a high level of environmental, cultural and social sustainability. High performance is achieved in all the criteria with the use of natural air, locally sourced materials, expressive tectonic systems and culturally responsive spatial organization. In addition, the hospital demonstrates tremendous economic and community impact in the form of local workforce participation, skills transfer, and creation of long-term local industries.

Table 9. Case study 3: Butaro Hospital MASS Design Group, Rwanda [33]

The research has incorporated the recent literature on regional architecture, phenomenology, and climate-responsive design by conducting a systematic review of 156 articles published from 2020 to 2024. The review brings out six overarching thematic clusters and, most importantly, points out the consistent dislocation of phenomenological, environmental, and economic strands of discourse in regional architecture.

To overcome this fracturing, the paper gives birth to Sensual Regionalism - a six-principle integrative model that includes embodied experience, climatic responsiveness, material regionalism, tectonic authenticity, cultural continuity, and economic consciousness. The framework is operationalized by an operational design criteria matrix that gives a measurable level of indications to each principle (Table 6), and tested by using three internationally recognized case studies that test the analytical and diagnostic strength.

Key Contributions

• Theoretical: Sensual Regionalism brings three previously discontinuous disciplinary streams together - phenomenology, bioclimatic design, and regional economics - into one coherent system.
• Methodological: The design criteria matrix (Table 6) offers the operational specificity that Critical Regionalism has historically been lacking.
• Empirical: The three-case examination indicates that projects exhibiting stronger alignment with all six principles demonstrate more integrated regional performance, while projects with weaker alignment in one or more principles exhibit clearer trade-offs within the limits of this sample.
• Practical: The framework provides practitioners, educators, and policymakers with a practical tool for action-based assessment of a regional design.

With climate change increasing and cultural homogenization growing faster, a greater urgency to find an architecture that is experientially rich, environmentally responsive, culturally continuous, and economically generative is becoming increasingly evident. The answer to this need offered by Sensual Regionalism is a stringent, operationalized answer to the need - and a platform in future research that would bridge the understanding of the architectural theory with the lived reality of buildings and their communities.