A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Sustainability in the Pluriverse: Learning from Global Futures
If the project of making architecture is a project in building the future, it is worth asking what imaginations inspire such futuring. This paper argues that discourses of architectural futurity can be augmented and inspired by discourses in global futurism. While bearing similarities to science fiction, these global futurisms are an impetus to re-frame the discourse of architectural sustainability in radical ways. The essay brings together scholarship in global futurisms from Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay with post-colonial anthropologist Arturo Escobar's concept of the “pluriverse.” As the ambitions represented by the UN sustainable development goals enter into dialog with speculative storytelling traditions from across the world, such dialog reveals that there is not a singular or universal practice of sustainability which the design disciplines can easily adopt. The stark contrasts between western science fiction and global futurism are a reminder that sustainable architectural futures can be imagined as technological fixes to an existing global order, or within very different social, economic, and political frameworks. As an example of one such fiction, this essay discusses “Reunion,” a novella by New Delhi born Vandana Singh, for its inspirations for architectural practice. In particular the novella describes an experimental settlement called Ashapur, as well as an infrastructure which combines technologically-oriented futures with one which privileges community with both human and non-human relations. Next, this essay makes some tentative associations between certain architectural practices and discourses in global futurism in order to argue for the many possible futures already lying latent within global architectural practice.
Sustainability in the Pluriverse: Learning from Global Futures
If the project of making architecture is a project in building the future, it is worth asking what imaginations inspire such futuring. This paper argues that discourses of architectural futurity can be augmented and inspired by discourses in global futurism. While bearing similarities to science fiction, these global futurisms are an impetus to re-frame the discourse of architectural sustainability in radical ways. The essay brings together scholarship in global futurisms from Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay with post-colonial anthropologist Arturo Escobar's concept of the “pluriverse.” As the ambitions represented by the UN sustainable development goals enter into dialog with speculative storytelling traditions from across the world, such dialog reveals that there is not a singular or universal practice of sustainability which the design disciplines can easily adopt. The stark contrasts between western science fiction and global futurism are a reminder that sustainable architectural futures can be imagined as technological fixes to an existing global order, or within very different social, economic, and political frameworks. As an example of one such fiction, this essay discusses “Reunion,” a novella by New Delhi born Vandana Singh, for its inspirations for architectural practice. In particular the novella describes an experimental settlement called Ashapur, as well as an infrastructure which combines technologically-oriented futures with one which privileges community with both human and non-human relations. Next, this essay makes some tentative associations between certain architectural practices and discourses in global futurism in order to argue for the many possible futures already lying latent within global architectural practice.
Sustainability in the Pluriverse: Learning from Global Futures
Sustainable Development Goals Series
Hilal, Sandi (editor) / Bedir, Merve (editor) / Ramsgaard Thomsen, Mette (editor) / Tamke, Martin (editor) / Letkemann, Joel Peter Weber (author)
World Congress of Architects ; 2023 ; Copenhagen, Denmark
2023-09-28
8 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
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