In the face of climate chaos, post-truth politics, and growing tribalisms, it’s clear that liberalism’s old structures are unraveling. Drawing on resilience ecology, Stephanie Wakefield suggests we understand such phenomena to be indicators that we are entering the Anthropocene’s back loop, a time of release and collapse, confusion and reorientation, in which not only populations and climates are being upended but also physical and metaphysical grounds. Anthropocene Back Loop takes us on a journey though different responses and manifestations of the back loop, exploring urban resilience infrastructures, post-apocalyptic imaginaries in fiction and critical theory, and a range of everyday practices ...

Archifutures is an edited collection of essays from the Future Architecture Platform, the first pan-European platform of architecture museums, festivals and producers, bringing ideas on the future of cities and architecture closer to the wider public. The platform connects multi-disciplinary emerging talents to high profile institutions like museums, galleries, publishing houses, biennials, and festivals. It provides talented conceptual thinkers and practitioners in architecture with opportunities to speak up – and be seen and heard.

We live in challenging times. There is overwhelming evidence that massive change is required in order to survive impending environmental collapse. Yet this fifth volume in the Archifutures series takes the position that the “apocalypse” is not an imminent event, but an insidious process that is already happening. Communities everywhere are facing it on a day-to-day basis. Many are already resisting and adapting. Despite the implied drama of the word “apocalypse”, the reality is actually far more mundane: surviving it is not about building bunkers, it is about building resilience – everywhere and in all kinds of ways. Contributors include: Bora ...

Research regarding the significance and consequence of anthropogenic transformations of the earth’s land, oceans, biosphere and climate have demonstrated that, from a wide variety of perspectives, it is very likely that humans have initiated a new geological epoch, their own. First labeled the Anthropocene by the chemist Paul Crutzen, the consideration of the merits of the Anthropocene thesis by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and the International Union of Geological Sciences has also garnered the attention of philosophers, historians, and legal scholars, as well as an increasing number of researchers from a range of scientific backgrounds. Architecture in the Anthropocene: ...

This pamphlet is one of a series produced as part of the research project Architecture after Architecture: Spatial Practice in the Face of the Climate Emergency. Each publication introduces a topic, concept or theme crucial to the project through a range of perspectives and asks ‘What does it mean in the context of climate, architecture, and spatial practice?’ Based on ongoing discussions amongst the research team and others, the pamphlets aim to be reflective as well as projective. They are preliminary in nature, written to be accessible, and usually written by one author working in collaboration with other members of ...

Janna Bystrykh is the head of the Master in Architecture programme at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. Janna has worked at KCAP and as an associate at OMA*AMO. In 2019 she founded the agency Bystrykh. At the Academy of Architecture, she is leading the development of a climate-focused curriculum for architecture. Mark Minkjan interviews Janna about regeneration, more-than-human perspectives on space, how to learn as a design community, and how exciting it is to be part of the Generation Regeneration, which was also the title of her inaugural lecture.

In 2015, the American Library Association adopted the Resolution on the Importance of Sustainable Libraries; since then, other international organizations have been quick to go along with the proposal, reporting on the potential relationship between sustainability and libraries. However, such documents (which, in general, support the role of librarians in building “sustainable, resilient and regenerative” communities and making “sustainable decisions”) remain purely statements of intent… that include a handful of trendy topics in their paragraphs, and fall short of being credible action plans. It is worrying to note that, despite the seriousness and urgency of the discussion, these statements tiptoe ...

The publication Not at Your Service: Manifestos for Design consolidates the wide variety of beliefs, subjects and practices of contemporary designers at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). It offers different approaches and insights regarding the present-day role and nature of design, and the impact it can have. It is not conceived as a finished project, but as a free-thinking testimony of its time. Collaborative design, interaction within complex systems, attention economics, the ecological shift, visual literacy, gender-neutral design, environmentally detrimental design, “quick and dirty” design ethnography, presence and trust, social responsibility, the value of ugliness, death futures, immersive technologies, identity ...

By the end of the 21st century, the Silver City, once known as Nottingham, has learned that change is the only constant. Whether its inhabitants were born there or arrived as refugees, all carry indelible memories of bewilderment and escape, of love, regret and transformation. Spinning through six decades of crisis and collapse, their stories ask: how do ordinary people fit into the great sweep of history?

Philip Oldfield is Head of School of the Built Environment at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney and the author of Sustainable Tall Building: A Design Primer. He has written for various media, including The Guardian, Dezeen and Architects’ Journal. Mark Minkjan interviews Philip about the balance between the urge to build skyscrapers – since Rotterdam has recently paved the way for a series of new 200 to 300-meter-tall high rises – and the necessary transformation of the building industry, which is still one of the largest destructive forces on climate and biodiversity. How to change the building ...

This book argues that climate change has a devastating effect on how we think about the future. Once several positive feedback loops in Earth’s dynamic systems, such as the melting of the Arctic icecap or the drying of the Amazon, cross the point of no return, the biosphere is likely to undergo severe and irreversible warming. Nearly everything we do is premised on the assumption that the world we know will endure into the future and provide a sustaining context for our activities. But today the future of a viable biosphere, and thus the purpose of our present activities, is put ...

Matthias Sauerbruch speaks on low energy architecture at the Federal Environment Agency building in Dessau.