Moshe Safdie, Jewel, Changi Airport, Singapore, 2018 (Bennv3771 - CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org)

ARC3305H F
Instructor: Hans Ibelings
Meeting Section: L9101
Synchronous
Friday, 9:00AM - 12:00PM

In conventional histories the Industrial Revolution plays an indispensable role in the birth and development of modern architecture. It is a story of how new materials, and new technologies have enabled and stimulated new forms, structures, typologies, and — in the most optimistic accounts — new forms of living. Yet, these conventional histories pay scant attention to the environmental impact of architecture, planning and geo-engineering.

After 1945 the second defining moment in the history of global warming began, the so-called Great Acceleration of the world population, consumption, the emission of greenhouse gases, urbanization, environmental decay, traffic, and building activities.

This seminar concentrates on architecture since 1945 and how it is entangled with the Great Acceleration. The course consists of lectures, readings, discussions and student presentations. The aim is to analyze conventional highlights of postwar architecture through the lens of global warming, and to foreground underrepresented people and projects that could become nodes in a history of architecture and global warming.

Collectively, students will create a timeline of key buildings, technologies, planning projects, landscape design, geo-engineering, art works, texts, events, etc, pertaining to global warming. Every student is expected to contribute 10 entries to this timeline, and to write a project description for each of them. In addition, individually, each student should write an essay on one of these entries.