The Ecological Intelligence course instructs and engages students in understanding, applying, analyzing, discussing, critically evaluating and integrating in their own creations key theories, scientific developments and socio-cultural perspectives regarding the design and construction of the built environment in light of global climate change and the need to advance carbon neutrality, resource security, biodiversity, and ecological resilience alongside human health and wellbeing.
The goal of the Masters in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities is to encourage students to adopt a more ecological approach, but this ideal notion of ecology needs to be individually considered. In fact, the definition of ecological design, sustainable design, or green design needs to be regularly contested and debated by architects and designers. The design of human ecosystems has immense consequences for the environments we operate in, and the advent of climate change has forced modern culture to acknowledge this fact. As architects and designers, we assume responsibility for understanding what actions our designs have on their context.
Through a process of ecological thinking, we seek to connect different worlds and scales into a conception of what it means to design ecologically. Ecology is defined as the relation between organisms and their environment, but there is no necessarily positive or negative connotation associated with acting ecologically. The power of ecological intelligence lies in its ability to transcend scale or species and understand a broader network of actors, entanglements, and relationships. Recent trends in architecture and urban design have introduced radical simplification driven by mechanical infrastructures inspired by the industrial revolution. Since then, complex webs of nature have been increasingly subjugated by the forces of industrial growth and development, leaving behind immense waste and destruction. By thinking ecologically, we can make meaningful connections between decisions made by architects and designers and the effects they have on the externalized environment.
Wark reflects on how modern nature tourism often prioritizes “second nature”—human-made environments—over authentic nature. On her family trip to Mount Zion, the park’s vast canyons and rock formations inspire awe, but this grandeur is soon filtered through rituals like taking selfies. Wacker’s RV transforms the wild into a comfortable, controlled space, making nature feel familiar. … Read more
An Analysis / Interpretation on Katherine Hayles, ‘How We Read’, ADE Bulletin 150 (2010), pp. 62-79 Close Reading in our brave new world seems to be, indeed, an act of bravery—rarely practiced and disfavored by contemporary multimedia. Technology has stripped reading of its old contemplative value, scattering it across illuminated fields of tabs and battering … Read more
McKenzie Wark, during the chapter “Adventures in Third Nature” of the book “New Geographies #9” uses her own family vacation as a sociological observation study to address the distantiation between humanity and nature. Everything built that shapes the natural environment and promotes comfort for mankind is part of the so-called “second nature”, like the own … Read more
“If you suffer from the misconception that most of the world is still too poor to buy anything at all, you risk missing out on the biggest economic opportunity in world history … Strategic business planners need a fact-based worldview to find their future customers” – Hans Rosling, in another instance at a business lecture. … Read more
“The end of the “wilderness.” In every region of the globe, erstwhile “wilderness” spaces are being transformed and degraded through the cumulative socio-ecological consequences of unfettered worldwide urbanization.” – Neil Brenner & Christian Schmid’s Planetary Urbanization from Implosions and Explosions (2013), p.65 source: Pinterestedited by author Earth, An Urban Organism Planetary urbanization challenges the idea … Read more
Micro-Essay by Isabel Flores “a new conceptual lexicon must be created for identifying the wide variety of urbanization processes that are currently reshaping the urban world and, relatedly, for deciphering the new emergent landscapes of socio-spatial difference that have been crystallizing in recent decades.” (Neil Brenner & Christian Schmid, p. 02) Planetary Urbanization” (2013) explores … Read more
“If second nature is something built by collective human labor to make a more habitable nature, “third nature” is something built by collective human endeavor to try to overcome the shortcomings of second nature.”McKenzie Wark McKenzie Wark’s concept of ‘third nature’ reveals the paradox of physical disconnection from the immediate, embodied experiences of first and … Read more
Could bio-based materials be the key to transforming the building sector and reducing its impact on climate change? The articles described present a compelling set of arguments on timber industry, sustainable forestrynonconventional materials and innovative technologies. TIMBER Timber is highlighted as the biggest widespread potential of low-carbon alternative to steel and concreteespecially referred to in … Read more
In our seminar with Michael Salka and Mariano Gomez Luque, we explored the meaning of ecology and the multifaceted challenges of sustainability, materiality and humanity’s relationship with the planet. Over eight weeks, we delved into two distinct but deeply connected approaches to build with ecological thinking and addressing climate change as well as envisioning a … Read more
MICRO-ESSAY On Gerry Canavan, If Those Goes On Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction’, 2014 & Benjamin Bratton, ‘Planetary Sapience Technology & The Human’, 2021 Both Bratton’s “Planetary Sapience” and Canavan’s “If This Goes On” touch upon the concept of intentional terraforming, albeit in significantly different contexts. Bratton frames it as a necessary outcome of … Read more
Micro-Essay by Georgia Hoyer “When we contemplate ruins, Christopher Woodward writes, we contemplate our own future.”(Canavan, p. 11) Benjamin Bratton’s “Planetary Sapience” and Gerry Canavan’s “If This Goes On” intersect in their exploration of humanity’s precarious relationship with the planet, emphasizing the power of imagination and speculative thinking to confront ecological and technological crises. Both … Read more
MAEBB01 / M02 ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE / MICRO-ESSAY On Benjamin Bratton,‘Planetary Sapience’, NOEMA (2021), pp. 1-10. On Gerry Canavan,‘Introduction: If This Goes On’, Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction (2014),pp. 1-19. “In stark contrast to the untold riches and total freedom they are imagined to provide, distant space colonies — whether on inhospitable moons or orbiting … Read more
The Intersection of Planetary Sapience and Speculative Futures Reflections – Benjamin Bratton – ‘PLANETARY SAPIENCE’ (2021) & Gerry Canavan – ‘IF THIS GOES ON’ introduction to ‘GREEN PLANETS’ (2014) Benjamin Bratton’s 2021 essay “Planetary Sapience” advances a compelling argument for a planetary-scale reconceptualization of intelligence and agency. Central to his thesis is the notion of … Read more
MAEBB01 / M02 ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE / MICRO-ESSAY On McKenzie Wark,‘Adventures in Third Nature’,pp. 179 – 182. The idea of second nature1comes from the layer of physical transformations that humans have built all around our environments: houses, cities, and even RVs. Second nature operates through tangible items and mechanisms that directly affect the physical environment. It … Read more
Revolutionizing Architecture with 3D Sand PrintingA Case Study Analysis by Reuben Diamond In recent years, the intersection of computational design and 3D printing has pushed the boundaries of what architecture can achieve. The article “Printing Architecture: Castles Made of Sand” by Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer explores how 3D sand printing—a cutting-edge additive manufacturing technology—can … Read more
MICRO-ESSAY BY REUBEN DIAMOND “ A new conceptual lexicon must be created for identifying the wide variety of urbanisation processes that are currently reshaping the urban world” (“Planetary Urbanization,” Brenner, N., & Schmid, C., p. 13) BOUNDARIES DISSOLVED As planetary urbanization reconfigures social, economic, and spatial relations, the traditional frameworks of urban studies encounter profound … Read more
