Some say that there are two ways to write about architecture: to look at ‘discourses full of objects’ or, conversely, at ‘objects full of discourses’. This doctoral seminar course radically explores the second approach by focussing on the ordinary ‘things’ that buildings are made of (e.g. toilets, elevators, but also bricks, or carpets) and extrapolating general concepts from them.

Thinking through architectural ecologies is as old as the first built structures, that much is clear by now. But why then has an environmental history of architecture, until today, failed to positively impact the nature of present-day building? Considering this failure as a shortcoming in the writing of history, this seminar delves into the repositories of historical knowledge: archives.

Thinking through architectural ecologies is as old as the first built structures, that much is clear by now. But why then has an environmental history of architecture, until today, failed to positively impact the nature of present-day building? Considering this failure as a shortcoming in the writing of history, this seminar delves into the repositories of historical knowledge: archives.

The seminar focuses on historically contextualising contemporary urgencies, discourses, and practices around ecology in architecture, with the goal of writing a environmental history of modern architecture.