INTERMISSION - PROJECT 1 - INDIVIDUAL PROJECT ONE STATEMENT

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT ONE STATEMENT

Consumerism and capitalism drives us quickly into an unsustainable future. People with the power to make a positive world contribution are blinded by a comfortable lifestyle so have little connection with real issues. There is evidence of overpopulation around the world currently and a large percentage is unable to receive a basic level of human needs; eating, breathing, moving, making and dwelling. Natural resources are almost depleted the price for these grow exponentially, causing a spike in unemployment, poverty and social upheaval. A Society dependent on the current social model now need to adapt and re-skill themselves without access to basic human needs (eating, breathing, moving, making, dwelling). We understand the environmental devastation caused by agriculture, mining and dams to basic ecosystem services, climate and bio-diversity. Decentralisation of cities will occur as the energy required to feed the dense population will not be possible so they need to move closer to resources. Low energy transport will need to be addressed by new technology, rail, or foot. The typical household structure will need to be addressed to allow maximum accommodation for minimal material & energy use. People will need to care for the ageing population. The world population will need to be address as an influx of climate and political refugees around the globe. Shelter, education and integration into society will need to be provided for all the people. A place for eating, breathing, moving, making and dwelling will have a built form.  A diversity of people coming together to form smaller communities bring them closer in terms of strength and shared knowledge, skills and resources. By living with a barter system, the global economy will not affect socially strong communities around the globe. By learning from the mistakes of the past we can improve the future. We explore these issues through BOB, (Billions of Beings).

 

 

Act 5 - Scene 2 - Reading - Erasing Architecture into the System

ERASING ARCHITECTURE INTO THE SYSTEM

(written by Arata Isozaki, translated by Alfred Birnbaum)

(image from http://arata-isozaki-architect.architectsonly.com/)

Another reading about Archigram, 'fun palace' or adaptation into Kenzo's 'festival plaza' and Cedric Price... whoop de do... Let me just stab myself in the eye with a pen whilst I read it to ease the pain.

Is anyone else glazing over at page 33? 'archi-babble' about "such calculated awareness of the time factor related to the enclosing of activities and their interrelationship must extend to an assessment of the valid life-span of the total complex, assessed primarily in socio-urban terms"
Is it just me being ignorant or do the academics sometimes lose the plot, grip on reality and humanity?

'Nuff said, more reading.....
yes, its great, flexible, transportable... its a space frame.  So what? Whats wrong with building a structure from local biodegradable materials, and built exactly where you are going to be building it.  There is no homogeneous approach to design.  I'm ranting again.

Oh wait, here we go, something relevant.  The technology education facility.. "Town Brain", very similar to our "Think-Farm". Very interesting that this was thought about decades before the Internet.

I do like this quote however "If today writing about utopias is a sign of spiritual desolation, then planning them must be a criminal act"   (Cedric Price, 1972)
I wonder is this the very thing we are trying to do, this semester? Do we need to plan for flaws?

*A sigh of relief, definately looking forward to Project 2*

Act 5 - Scene 1 - Architectural Opportunities

 

ARCHITECTURAL OPPORTUNITIES

 

 

IDEAS

Shelter, food, security, belonging etc

Time line of development

Living room, social spaces, food farm, think farm, education centres, workshops, transport, access routes, neighbourhood, show on master plan

THINK TANK - made out of rainwater tanks?

Woodfordia - Last resort (double meaning)

The urban form is decentralised, and satellite towns are re-established.

Compact towns, more room for gardens

Structures to be re-adapted for living - rainwater tanks, tubes

Waste is reused as building materials. Pallets, steel, mud, plastic

Donations of excess product from companies

'Binistructures' of mud  http://www.binisystems.com/

image from http://earthship.com/

Earthships

Build on slopes, leave flat land for planting/social space

Locate resources (trees, quarry) high on hill, for ease of transportation

Locate waste materials centrally for reuse (YIMBY)

500 year plan - Slow architecture (like slow food)

 

(image from http://dornob.com/100-year-treehouse-will-take-a-century-to-be-completed/)

 

This hypothetical project summarises the need for humans to slow down their development.  This is a representation of creating something so selfless, that you will never even see in your lifetime.  It is giving something to future generations.  Something so beautiful in nature will take 100 years to produce.   The industrial revolution changed the speed at which humanity impacted the each tenfold. 

 

“If we can be patient with the building time we can reduce the need for transportation, waste of material and different manufacturing processes, simply by helping nature grow in a more architectonic and useful way.” (http://dornob.com/100-year-treehouse-will-take-a-century-to-be-completed/)

Act 4 - Scene 4 - Reading - Aesthetics and Architecture

"The question for the artist and the architect alike is: how can we create works of art and architecture in a world in which such consumerism - itself a symptom of false consciousness or bad faith - is now the norm?"

"How can I make an authentic work in an age subservient to economic imperatives?"

The Structuralist, Existentialists and Situationist each portray a need for deeper meaning into architecture than just function.  There are moral, political, philosophical and social issues which influence people and design.  This reading highlights the correlation between visual arts and conceptual architecture to explore deeper social and moral concerns.

The existentialist theologists expresses that freedom and choice is what sets apart humans from animals or stone.  Apparently a horse behaves as it does because it is a horse, of course. However they seem to think that man is born free to live a life they choose. 

This is true to an extent, however much of human nature is about the social systems we have created and have little control over.  We are social animals by nature and therefore, assimilate with like-minded groups.   We are governed by a set of rules, whether socialist or capitalist and it takes a great deal of effort to change or choose the life we lead due to existing societal forces and a human nature to impress, succeed, breed, prosper, eat. We are provided with a given set of values, spiritual, consumerist, and yet we rarely question them, due to habit, advertising, and our current level of comfort and acceptance.  "Capitalism has created 'pseudo-needs' to increase consumption" and "the media" has been instrumental in providing "the great driving force of the capitalist economy in the latter half of the twentieth century"

Creating a hub at Woodfordia for the exploration of people existing in a free, low consumption society is our aim to a sustainable futures.  The current global trend of growth is good is unsustainable.

(Aesthetics and Architecture, Chapter 8, Politics and the Situationist International, pg 92-)

Act 4 - Scene 3 - .... After the Rain

I have been reading an AD architectural magazine called 'Architectures of the Near Future' published in 2009. The entire journal is a tribute to the author JG Ballard.  Bleak, stark, uncompromising Architectural landscapes are the sets in his writings. However there is faith in the social ability to endure hardship and prosper.  To quote directly from the introduction:

"Like Ballard, let us not despair; though the future may be uncertain, uncertainty is not without its attractions".
"The current economic situation offers great potential for developing a new agenda in architecture. The fact that the discipline of architecture has become synonymous with the architectural profession is something that will no doubt become contested as unemployment rises through the building industry - those of us who can remember previous recession can also remember them as highly creative periods" (Architecture of the Near Future, 2009, pg 9)


One article suggest that we are already seeing the city model slipping out of control.  The city becomes a site of military conflict a petri dish for political, economic and social decay.  We have seen the warfare throughout the Middle East, SARS in China and New Orleans destroyed by a hurricane.  Is our Utopian vision of cities slipping away from us where slums, and crime dominate the social fabric?


Another article provides some insight on how we could present our own future scenario.  This student has used collage and motion-graphic technique to portray how life would emerge from a destroyed city.  This short film is entitled London After the Rain.  It is reference to surrealist Max Ernst's painting Europe after the rain which was a reflection on the effects of World War II.

London after the rain by Ben Olszyna-Marzys

Again, this is a grim outlook on the future, but I think this is necessary to present our fresh start of a future, as we move towards a decentralised and low-impact lifestyle.  This type of setting could be the beginning of our character's journey, minus the warfare. But emphasising the shift in the way cities, and regional areas can function with high unemployment and low resources.

Act 4 - Scene 2 - Woodford Site visit

Saturday Morning, nice day for a drive.
It was great to finally meet some of the people behind Woodford Folk Festival.  Bill Hauritz took us around the site demonstrating the massive effort gone into transforming the ground from grazing lands into the rainforest it is today.  Woodford is geographically located as far north as temperate species survive, as far south as Tropical species will thrive, as far west as coatal species can handle and as far east as desert species exist.  This area could become a habitat for a myriad of threatened species.

Own photo: Bill Hauritz in the well-established season camping area

The new territories were purchased 6 years ago and were previously a Radiata Pine plantation.  The acid from pine needles has destroyed the topsoil.  To turn this into useable land, WFF experimented by cutting terraces into the slope to relocate topsoil to flat areas and expose subsoil to planted slopes.  This has allowed tree seedlings to be planted, which will make this place a perfect accomodation site once trees are fully established.

Own photo: New territories - Regenerated Radiata Pine Plantation

Bill explained that any new development on the site needs to be in accordance with their 500 year plan.  They are the caretakers of the land, and don't want to relfect the arts in any permanent constructions.  Woodford can be a place where technology and innovation can be tested.  Their sewerage treatment plant is testament to this.

Own photo - Woodfordia sign

Pipe Dreaming

3rd year accomodation project to generate income through conferences and can be used for artist accomodation for the festival. This idea was inspired by the Austrian hotel which uses drain pipes as hotel rooms:

Image from: http://www.dasparkhotel.net/rooms/

Reuse of materials or donation materials are considered to be an environmental and economical option for WFF.  Rainwater tanks could be fitted out for buildings.

Flat space is at a premium so hillside design is important. 

The timeframe for the development is 100-500 years so this needs to be considered.

Design Constraints

- Speak/ reflect values of woodford folk festival

- Safe / secure

- Comfortable

- Revolutionary approach, innovative ideas, use little and low cost material

- Should be built using mainly unskilled labour (volunteers)

- Accomodate a variety of people

- Use Indigenous management practives

- A place for innovation / learning / melting pot

- Synthesis of arts, science, poetry, craftsmanship. Interdisciplinary

- Disruptive Innovation - Avoid constraints of current South East Qld Regional Plan and building codes

- Self sufficiency model

- Transformation institutions

- Encourage a supply chain of locally grown organic food. Organic farms surrounding Woodfordia

Own Photo - test models for 3rd year project 

Own Photo - brainstorm for 3rd year project

Crawl - Walk - Run

It was great to see the site while the festival is not on.  Being a regular festival goer, i have a great attachment to the ground and festival.  It definately takes on a different character when uninhabited.  I can't wait to start designing for the masterplan now that we have seen it in its bare form: Woodford Site map - see below

 

(own image - based on Woodford festival map and site contours) 

 

2009 Festival Site Photo

 

 

Most of the flat space is utilised during the festival so this needs to be considered when designing more permanent structures.

"The site is ideally suited for the development of a future village, however it is up to you to more fully define the year-round purpose of these buildings and their role in the future Woodfordia village. Keep in mind that the Woodfordia committee take sustainability seriously - they have developed a 500 year plan for the festival site [see below].

Your brief is to analyse the Woodfordia site, put forward a case for environmental-community-economic sustainability in line with Woodford’s 500 Year Plan and then make an architectural proposition for just one component of the overall scheme. This component may be the educational facility, residential housing facilities or another building (in consultation with your tutor) which you have identified as integral to your strategic plan." (QUT Blackboard brief)

The 500 Year Plan

- We recognise, appreciate and graciously receive gifts from our ancestors. We understand these are the gifts of lore and the celebration of our existence.
- We aim to gift future generations a clean slate: an organisation unencumbered with financial social or environmental debt.
- We’ll cultivate a convention of decision making, strengthening through time, that will resonate in our work and nurture our future.
- We’ll plant a forest of goodwill and benefit from its shade.
- We will build with the eyes of artists.
- We’ll provide space for our descendants to meet the challenges of their generations with vigour, courage and imagination and encourage them to celebrate their journeys with levity and frivolity.

The 500 year plan lives in our minds. It is our myth. It is a vision for how we might be and sensed by all who feel our welcome.



Act 4 - Scene 1 - People and their lifestyles

PEOPLE & LIFESTYLES

(own image)

"We are no more qualified to be the stewards or developers of the Earth than are goats to be gardeners" (James Lovelock, revenge of Gaia)

We focus our journey around B.O.B.
B.O.B is one but s/he is many.... and from all the lands on earth we come.... etc
BOB is Billions Of Beings
BOB has a job, lives comfortably, then he doesn't, where does BOB go, what does he do

WOODFORD

Barter system

- Carpenter, civil engineers, new networks

How do they manage skills, trade (origin or the word?) exchange?

'Burning man' philosophy

Aboriginal Philosophy or way of life, indigenous management practices

Work collectively. Build, grow, learn together without financial gain.

Interdisciplinary innovation - Arts, science, poetry, craftsmanship

Local supply chain for food

Central characters - White collar, blue collar, housewife, family, different cultures, sharing ideas

 

Living together, eating together, working together, playing together.

 

ILLAC DIAZ - LITRE OF LIGHT

Illac Diaz is an entrepeneur of sustainable lifestyles and architecture, he has empowered many people living in poverty and little electricity to achieve light into their dense and dark homes.  See link below.  Something as simple as a PET drink bottle can build a happier and healthier community.

http://isanglitrongliwanag.org/about-illac-diaz/

This Youtube clip follows a  carpenter who has been reskilled to help the community, through this idea:

LECTURE

The lecture guides us to define our fiction into:

Characters - Future citizens - put ourselves into this character
Scenes - Future Lifestyle
Sets - Proposed spaces (for project 2)

The fiction should be based on Reality and Fact.  Use data to back up the story
The presentation could be storyboarded - Each group member could draw a scene/character, and see the contrast between characters.

Are the characters freinds, colleagues, strangers, family, community?
What do they want to do?
What do they need?

How do we deal with indeterminacy?  Should the spaces be flexible? We need to consider the timelines of:
Structure
Skin
Services
Space plan
Stuff

We should consider how the future could adapt the structure into something totally different.

What can machines contribute?
Recycled machine waste?
Transport issues?

Act 3 - Scene 3 - Reading - Shearing Layers

LIFE TIME OF PARTS

I found it really interesting ot consider a building in this matter, the way it evolves and has the capacity to evolve over time. It is really important for a designer to consider, yet I have never thought in terms of Site, Structure, Skin, Services, Space plan and Stuff, and the number of different reincarnations over a lifetime. I know can understand the viewpoint of Archigram and their adaptable spaces being prepared to accept change. I had not considered this. This is why the structure, the bones of a project were so expressed, so the skin and services can change over time.

Frank Duffy's concept

Fun Palace - Cedric Price

image from: http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/fun-palace-cedric-price.html

Act 3 - Scene 2 - Sustainable Future Group ideas

BAMBOO CREW

One of guest tutors is linked to the Woodford Folk festival through the bamboo structures they create for the festival:  website is below:
http://bamboocrew.org.au/

SUSTAINABILITY

'Eco-idealist' or 'Rural Autonomy' strategy. Taking lead from Mollison's permacultre ideals.

Need to start building / investing in decentralised infrastructure / energy / water / agriculture

Reduce material consumption levels through: dramatic improvements in resource use efficiency, including: reducing waste; investment in sustainable resources, technologies and infrastructures; and systematically decoupling economic activity from environmental impact.

Focus on education and social responsibilty

Create a clear link between environmental issues and population capacity

Migrants - cultural equality

A place for people to rebuild the new sustainable future. Factory, workshop for new technology, permaculture or agricultural revolution.

'THINK FARM' Educational Centre

"Necessity is the mother of invention" - Plato

Invest in and integrate alternative energies: Biofuels, solar, wind, candle fuelled cars, coconut cars

Have a 'YIMBY' - (yes in my backyard) - approach.

Understanding of lifecycle of material, products, life

Jonathan Porritt http://www.jonathonporritt.com/Campaigns/population is an advocate for a sustainable world population and a member of The Royal Society. Their recommendations for prevention of an unsustainable future is included below:(http://royalsociety.org/uploadedFiles/Royal_Society_Content/policy/projects/people-planet/2012-04-25-PeoplePlanet.pdf)

ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY - SOCIAL CAPITAL

On our tutors recommendation we decided to discuss amongst our project group our common goal for the design project.  Jacob mentioned that one critical issue for the Woodford folk festival is the need to buyback the land from Moreton Bay council.  Is there a way that Woodford Festival could pay back the council through social capital rather than financial?  The benefit that the Woodford site could provide an asset and income far greater than what the land is worth, if it could contribute towards tourism, social and mental health, unemployment, education and conservation.  How do you propose a barter style economy on such a small scale.  Unfortunately the current global socio-economic system is based on continued material consumption and growth. Capitalism is unsustainable.
A new global system to reduce consumption may not be a possibility, but could begin on a small scale.   Perhaps our future scenario can hold the key to success in economic sustainability and equality.

 

 

SUSTAINABLE FUTURE ARCHITECTURE

What is the lowest impact way of living in the future. Treehouses? Is this a good way to be empathetic towards the environment/earth that supports us?

 

 

image from: http://www.lostateminor.com/2009/10/21/free-spirit-sphere-tree-houses/

 

 

 

 





Act 3 - Scene 1 - Tutorial - Sustainability Patterns

PATTERNS

The lecture highlighted the application of patterns to a multitude of areas, in keeping with the theories of Christopher Alexanders A Pattern Language.  This is a guide book that I like to flick through when brainstorming about design strategies, it is almost like a thesaurus for designers.  Our tutorial groups really struggled with the concept of creating our own sustainability patterns.  I feel these are quite difficult to come up with specifically without empirical knowledge of the area, and we tended to generalise.

(Own image - Exploration of Sustainable Patterns)

 



Need to be more specific, Christopher Alexander does it better: see below extracts from A Pattern Language

 

 

Act 2 - Scene 3 - Future Ideas Development

On discussion of our future theories regarding climate change, a tutorial group member recommended we watch this film.  This adds further to the evocative discussion about the future of our planet.

Recently I watched a documentary on the revolutionary architect Michael Reynolds, who believes that the solution to the changing earth is to change the way we live.  He uses recycled and natural materials to create livable, passive structures that can be built by anyone with the time to do so. This type of downscaling the impact of energy resources could contribute to a better future scenario, where people can build their own shelter out of local and waste materials.

When considering Future architecture, a google image search can result in the image below:

High res, rendered, computer modelled free form, parasitic, floating, pointy, light, monumental Utopian shape making. Scary isn't it?  However the reality that has shaped design over the past 30 years has been predominant market and economic driven factors.  If we can design based around the future uncertainty of economics, we should have a good chance of success.  The sheer scale and use of undiscovered materials for these visionary designs make them unviable as a real future. I feel that a low-fi design solution that incorporates sustainable technology and landscape ecology can create a determinable future.

images from: google images search on "Future Architecture"

Act 2 - Scene 2 - Future Scenarios

The lecture has lured us in with the theatrics of 1927 Fritz Lang film Metropolis and the RIBA Presidents medal winner Robots of Brixton. However by the tutorial the 'What if....' scenarios we are provided with are much more realistic rather than fiction: 

During the tutorial we explore....
unfortunately i did not get photos

(Own image)

It is the year 2050.

Despite the warning signs from Scientists and academics and all the papers produced , society has not adapted to ease environmental issues burdening the worlds ecosystem and finite resources.

The worlds politician have spent many years pointing fingers and still nothing has been done to tackle climate change, carbon and peak oil.

Fossil fuels are almost depleted and have become extremely expensive.

This causes massive unemployment due to redundancies in the mining sector and most other industries soon follow suit.

The divide between the poor and the wealthy has increased.

Travel has become restricted due to reliance on cars.

People are leaving the cities in search for means to live.

Compare facts in time-line graph:

- economic crashes

- peak oil

- unemployment

- climate change

- population growth

- population capacity

- area of agricultural land

- show first agriculture revolution and effect on population - do we downscale to reduce population?

FUTURE SCENARIOS - TUTORIAL & OWN EXPLORATION OF IDEAS

URBAN

What if Brisbane city was closed off to car traffic in the CBD similar to London?

Increase public transport infrastructure
Turn roads into bikeways or public spaces, parklands, canals for aquaculture/transport
Roads become more like suburban streets, more leisurely, pedestrian, active (cricket on street?)
Turn old carparks into vertical gardens, interesting office fitouts, markets, aquaculture ponds, swimming pools
Food for the city

SUBURBAN

What if all retail stores in Paddington Central stopped selling good but kept a physical presence for customer experience?

Turn shops into their active component
For example,
Sport store would become a Sports facility
A bottleshop becomes a pub
Woolies becomes a cooking school
Eliminate stock and create experience
Does this then make our social live better by entering the outside world to do things other than shopping?

Do we need the retail experience at all, this can all be done virtually.  Second life style shopping with avatars? I have recently been dreaming, that if I had the means to do so, I would pitch this idea to Google: What if we created Google Shopping? This can be linked to Google Earth, with 3D buildings turned on. You can then fly around the world and swoop down to streets and shopfronts.  You can then move into an animated doorway into their online shopping website, where clothes can be picked off virtual racks, and your virtual avatar tries them on.  You can them go shopping in New York, Dubai, anywhere from your living room.  The real shops can be more like the headquarters or fashion warehouses?  What can the shopping precincts become instead? Just a thought: see google earth image below of Brisbane city scape that can already be virtually explored.

 REGIONAL

What if the Woodford Folk Festival site were to become a self-sufficient community?

Woodfordia recently went into receivership and negotiated a deal with Sunshine Coast council to purchase their land with a 20year buy back option. 
How do we address the need to purchase the land back from the council?

How can the land be effectively used while the three annual festivals are not on?

Educational centre
Virtual land management
Cultural centre
Wildlife / flora sanctuary
Bush foods
Agriculture would disrupt current festival use
Build traditional structures for the festival / education / courses in cob houses
Climate refugees
Government structure
Self sufficient cut off from outside sources
Inland community becomes coastal due to rising water

VIRTUAL

What if Qld governments key strategy was to resolve urban, suburban and regional issue virtually?

Social problems - obesity, mental problems, awkwardness
need to relearn community skills
keyboard warriors - anger online - behave differently
anonymity of virtual world
Unreal, devoid of sensory experience

How do virtual products change current architectural systems?
Anything is possible - complete conceptual freedom

Act 2 - Scene 1 - Reading - Urban Form and Locality

This weeks reading highlights the challenges of a sustainable future for development.  An 'eco-idealist' approach and 'compact city' forms were compared. 

Both opposing solutions have their pros and cons. 

RURAL AUTONOMY
I am definitely more attracted to the Eco-idealist approach to living sustainably, however this is not for everyone.  Travel between work and country, creating an ideal mixture of facilities and trades becomes difficult. Also the commercial popularity a 'tree change' to city dwellers disrupts the ideals of living of the land.  The shift to a traditional manner of living does form a complete self-sufficient system should there be planning in place to manage these developments successfully.  The Ecovillage at Currumbin is a modern day example of this, however the price of purchasing these developments is high, and young people wanting to move in and live off the land in a community is impossible.   Can Woodford provide a prototype of communal living for a common goal of sustainability that is not economically biased?  Is this possible with the current way people are accustomed to living?  Can technology assist in this, by allowing people to work from home?
James Lovelock's Gaia theory is particulary appropriate to designing for this type of area, treating the earth as one organism. This is also reflected by the ecologist approach taken by Ken Yeang, who is famous for mainly his high rise buildings, the eco-mimicry of his buildings can be adopted at any scale.  In the interview below Ken Yeang speaks about his ideas in solving issues of transport, cities, health and the environment.

LINEAR CONCENTRATION
Compact cities are highlighted as being more sustainable due to less reliance on transport.  I do not entirely agree with this conclusion as it has not considered the energy required to transport vast amounts of food grown in the country into cities.  This is where intensive city farming could come into play, however this takes a lot of energy also.  There is increased yield due to increase artificial light, lack of pests, disease and drought. These need to be powered by artificial light and chemicals, so is this really a sustainable options as it does not form a closed system.
http://nuvege.com/about3.html
http://www.verticalfarm.com/blog

The feasibility on urban intensification also requires a total overhaul of current planning schemes, to reflect the lack of reliance on cars and smaller households.  Also the cost of living in the inner city increases, so housing affordability is a huge issue.  City planning using dispersed concentrations along transport routes broken by wildlife corridors seem to be a desirable strategy.  By increasing density to two or three story flats with shared walls, rather than inefficient one story dwellings, and high energy high rise buildings cities could live more sustainably.  Also by sharing gardens for growing food within walking distance eases the pressure of food miles.

Here is a link to some interesting blog images with some 'futuristic' city megastructure which have impacted on Architectural theory today:
http://www.oobject.com/category/futuristic-megastructures/

Barton compares using four types of urban-form strategies:
1. Dispersal vs concentration
2. Segregation or inter-mixture of urban activities
3. Settlement Density
4. Shape

Act 1 - Scene 2- future theories

Week one begins with an evocative lecture which inspires us to think about future potentials which could set the scene for our next design assignment. Initial images begin running through my mind of a apocalyptic or science fiction type future, which could unleash an unhindered potential of design solutions.   There are so many theories about what the future may hold and I am reminded of an extremely interesting Rolling Stone article I read recently with an interview with scientist James Lovelock.

James Lovelock:

 image from:http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/29/james-lovelock-climate-change

"One of the most eminent scientists of our time says that global warming is irreversible — and that more than 6 billion people will perish by the end of the century" JEFF GOODELL 2007

Lovelocks views on global warming are utterly convincing. "The IPCC, the U.N. panel on climate change, estimates that global warming will cause Earth's average temperature to rise as much as 11.5 degrees by 2100. This will cause inland glaciers to melt and seas to expand, triggering a maximum sea level rise of only twenty-three inches. Greenland, according to the IPCC's models, will take 1,000 years to melt." (Goodell, 2007)

Lovelock argues "For one thing, scientists know from the geological record that 3 million years ago, when temperatures increased to five degrees above today's level, the seas rose not by twenty-three inches but by more than eighty feet. What's more, recent satellite measurements indicate that Arctic ice is melting so rapidly that the region could be ice-free by 2030." (Goodell, 2007)


James Lovelock created the device which contributed to the detection of CFC ruining the ozone layer in Antarctica, he later worked for NASA and in this Astronomical theory about Earth in comparison to planets like mars later led him to his famous "Gaia theory"

Gaia Theory

Lovelock understood that our atmosphere was created not by random geological events but by the cumulative effusion of everything that has ever breathed, grown and decayed. Our air "is not merely a biological product," Lovelock wrote, "but more probably a biological construction: not living, but like a cat's fur, a bird's feathers or the paper of a wasp's nest, an extension of a living system designed to maintain a chosen environment." According to Gaia theory, life is not just a passenger on Earth but an active participant, helping to create the very conditions that sustain it. It's a beautiful idea --life begets life. (Goodell, 2007)

Doomsday

Lovelock suggest that there is way of preventing this from happening but being prepared for the declining poputlation and resources, going back to a more primitive and transient lifestyle. Europe will become deserts and most coastal areas will be under water to we will have Climate refugees. He has written many books and the most positive of all is The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back - and How We Can Still Save Humanity, 1996 describes the necessary changes to human settlement and dwelling at the global scale with the purpose of adapting to global warming and preventing its expected negative consequences on humans.

Fun Future Plots

For a bit of fun, I came across these "Apocotecture" designs by students on Dornob website. Basically a play on the doomsday future scenario architecture.

 

 

images from http://dornob.com/apocotecture-awards-10-zombie-proof-safe-house-designs/

Act 1 - Scene 1 - Future indeterminacy

Archigram...

I can't help but feel uncomfortable with their attempt at experimentation in future theory despite the fact they do make some (very few) interesting points. Their explorations seem to be based around a mish/mash of science fiction fascination, a obsessive need to express modern technology and 'futuristic' machines mixed with Andy Warhol-esqe mass production. The world has been discovered, so now we delve into a technological nightmare of space comic fantasies? This is a far cry from any human, natural or tangible design that I would like to embark upon as a future architect.

Archigram 1966 states that "Buildings with no capacity to change can only become slums or ancient monuments". However I am from the belief that we need to design specifically rather than loosely to create great design otherwise we have a generic and dull built environment.

image from: http://dprbcn.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/weightless-paisajes-emergentes/4729_medium/

 

 

 

 

NOMADIC DESIGN

'The futurist gear of plug-in cities was necessary at the time to make the statement that "Architecture does not need to be permanent", later, this can be simplified to "Architecture does not need to be"'. (Beyond Architecture)

Archigram No. 8 focused 'the Nomad" as a central character in the plot of new architecture.

The reality however, more than 50 years on is the mass production of demountable rectangular buildings transported to a site, dictated by the transport that got it there. Also they are rarely relocated again. For example shipping container size. So why build in this manner?

What if transport changed? What if transport was dictated by the form of our daily activities? For example, a tool is shaped by the element they are designed to fix/screw/cut and visa versa.

It is easy to critisise now that the future they imagined had a use-by date, although maybe their future is still developing. Where has this gotten us, are our lives better, is everything too easy? It is interesting to consider nonetheless.

Rehearsal

"...testing... testing.... one..... two.......two two.....one"



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Image from www.talkshoe.com