-
Jonas Johnson posted an update in the group
a year agoGreen Building Places Journal has a really insightful critical review by Belmont Freeman of the Emerging Ecologies architecture exhibit at MoMA. Really appreciated the take-aways from the exhibit (which I haven’t seen yet) that Freeman draws out, between an ecological “aesthetics” and environmentalism, the need to reuse and retrofit rather than build new cities, and the necessity for social design rather than simply architectural design. Check it out:
an ambitious but nonetheless problematic exhibition that struggles to establish, on the one hand, the relationship of architecture to the environmental movement, and, on the other, its relevance to our present-day crisis. Which is to say that the exhibition grapples with its very premise; and which is perhaps why it never offers any clear or consistent definitions of such basic terms as “ecological,” “environmental,” “sustainable,” or “green.” In contemporary practice, slipperiness of terminology has enabled the cynical greenwashing of reprehensible projects, allowing architects to meet one set of criteria while eliding (or eluding) others.
2 Comments-
Nice, thanks for sharing Jonas. I have been thinking a lot about where architecture might matter in the transition, and–@anand has heard me say this–I’m increasingly convinced we need a proper and pretty literal ‘materialist’ analysis. The real action is not in the superstructure of interesting and intriguing ‘green’ designs, but the general mode in which developers, contractors and concrete, glass and steel companies make certain materials available, default and obvious for any particular project. It is no surprise that out of all the aforementioned actors, architects get paid the least. They are not where the real money or impact is. They usher us into amazing dream zones which probably lull as much as they inspire.
The #retrofitfirst movement gets closest to reality, because the premise is that you do not start with what is in the architect’s head, but what they can touch with their hands. But as long as new buildings continue to get built, it will be far more interesting to focus on the industry side of things than the ‘creative’ side.
-
Thanks for sharing this Jonas. I had the chance to visit late last year, there was a lot to think with there…
-