Architectural Design V-IX: Before the Collapse - Architecting (Eco)Systems (A. Brandlhuber)

Abstract

We are continuing to explore the theme of cohabitation: the interplay of human and nonhuman systems in our built environment. We are focusing on a given ecosystem, as the context for our architectural proposals. Further, we are expanding our toolbox: storytelling and film continue to play an overarching role, but we are opening up the studio to other media and forms of architectural exploration.

Objective

The design studio is aimed at the students acquiring the following skills: Prefigurative Architecting The ability to think in different scales and systems, in order to determine issues and themes by observing the changing conditions of our environment. The aim is to develop an architectural position in relation to these observations and to translate it into a viable and sustainable proposal for the future of our coexistence. Storytelling and Narrative-Design The ability to translate factual knowledge about architecture and architectural systems into a story. These narratives function in parallel and offer other ways and speeds of communicating the design arguments besides the factual approach. In addition to time-based media such as film and episodic video formats which we call television, we will be developing additional formats with the students from this semester on. Both learning objectives will be introduced in topic-specific lectures at the beginning of the course.

Content

This semester we are continuing to explore the theme of cohabitation: the interplay of human and nonhuman systems in our built environment. But this time, we are focusing on a given ecosystem, as the context for our architectural proposals. Further, we are expanding our toolbox: storytelling and film continue to play an overarching role, but we are opening up the studio to other media and forms of architectural exploration. (see learning objectives) “Europe's sea of plastic”, Almería in the south of Spain, is our point of departure. It is one of the many places where our globalized and accelerated ways of life become visible and take on built form. Together, we want to explore and understand the different types of architecture that can be found on site. Dating from different times, created for different needs. A deeper understanding of the systemic relations of these local structures is essential in order to become active and to produce architectural models for the future — for Almeria and beyond. Global (Eco)Systems The ongoing industrialization and urbanization of our environment is the main driver of depletion on our planet. These changes are human-made, which is why we speak today of the Anthropocene: an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.[1] It is indispensable taking a look at the motives and conditions of our global actions, which laid ground for the occurrences and changes we are experiencing today and which led to the concept of the Anthropocene. Exponential growth has long been the western societal leitmotif, which places economic interests over ecological ones. But as economist Kenneth Boulding puts it: Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist. And although Western societies have access to data and knowledge about the consequences of their actions, and the limits and finiteness of the Earth's ecosystem, we still seem unable or unwilling to act differently. The concept of the Anthropocene sees humanity equally responsible for this change. But it was mainly Western societies that emitted and benefited from the massive industrialization and are triggering the ongoing urbanization of our environment. From a relative point of view, it was the capital that drove Western societies. This is why other scholars such as environmental historian and political economist Jason W. Moore have been prompted to recast the notion of the Anthropocene, with the more nuanced and connective concept of the Capitalocene. Capital-driven thinking is also evident in architecture, both in the built and unbuilt environment. Every crisis, including the most recent one, has caused economic eruptions that led to increasing investments in land and real estate and thus, resulted in profit-oriented-architectures. These take shape in different places, forms and typologies. Exploring them is of great importance, in order to understand the local and global role architecture plays in different systems. By doing so, we reflect on how urbanization — as the most prevalent socio-material form of environment-making under capitalism — has re-ordered human and non-human relations in profound ways.[2] This knowledge enables us to design an architecture that questions the status quo and, beyond that, creates new spaces for our coexistence.

Resources