volume 2/ DIALECT.

The word dialect has origins in discourse and conversation. During the 17th and 18th centuries this word began to connote a subordinate form of a language. More recent linguistic investigations have reframed dialect within an understanding of languages as contextual and temporal, constantly shifting in response to social and economic events. In this interpretation, every dialect bears the marks of the environment and resident culture that created it, a certain specificity of place.

Within the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia a new dialect of the language of architecture and landscape architecture is evolving. In particular, it expresses the dynamic and tightly linked relationship between the disciplines of architecture and landscape architecture within our combined program. Our work embodies something of both the friction and symbiosis of this relationship, and we communicate it to others through our words and our making. Rather than an attempt to fix or formalize our own emerging language, this issue of lunch is an initiative to engage its diversity. We present our work and the work of those who impact this place as a means of honing its intentions and revealing its character.

One characteristic of a dialect is its limited audience. At a time when changing ecological and social conditions demand a new level of interdisciplinary action, we are concerned that the language of architecture is increasingly isolated. It is a goal of this publication to facilitate an expanded conversation. In this issue we include pieces that interpret dialect through a variety of lenses. As well as work by architecture and landscape architecture students and faculty, contributions come from architectural history and urban planning, as well as practioners who challenge sharp boundaries between disciplines.

Editors
Shanti Fjord Levy
David Malda
Ryan Moody

Image by Ronan Bouroullec.