The evening schools have returned! You Tell Me Collective is hosting a series of discussion events bringing together students, young architects, professionals, experts from various fields and anyone interested to learn from one another. The first evening school of 2023 will cover the theme:
Architecture Without New Construction
"Seemingly static buildings are actually pieces of mining equipment, actively devouring the planet. In an important sense, buildings do not stand on the solid ground of the site in which they appear but instead in the holes of extractions from all the distant grounds that do not appear… More polemically, the supposed life sustained inside and around buildings is propped up by an economy of death at a distance that is in no way accidental. Buildings give shape to death. A sustained pessimism about architecture might be a much more valuable guide to design than the usual optimism." writes Mark Wigley in Returning the Gift - Running Architecture in Reverse, published in Non Extractive Architecture - On Design without Depletion
We are in the decisive decade in terms of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. As humanity is heading full speed past 1.5 degrees of global warming, what is needed from architecture may not be a new building.
In 2021 French architect Charlotte Malterre-Barthes launched an initiative called A Moratorium on New Construction. The initiative calls for a pause to new construction, demolition and extractive practices to enable critical reflection of the construction industry. Through this pause, the construction industry could realign itself to less extractive and destructive paths, focusing on care, repair, working with the existing buildings and redistribution of real estate. As long as the construction industry continues business as usual the needed radical rethinking will not happen.
What is architecture without new construction? What is the role of architects if they are not creating new designs but rather working with what already exists? Are architects ready to redefine how we understand authorship as the design work involves increasingly the oeuvre of architects who have come before.
Is architecture without new construction stagnant and conservative, stifling new ideas and innovation, or does it in fact open up a fundamentally different, more meaningful and exciting direction for the field?
Welcome to discuss on Wednesday 5.4. 18:00 in the library of the Museum of Finnish Architecture.
What: an open discussion event
Where: Library of the Museum of Finnish Architecture (Kasarmikatu 24, 00130 Helsinki)
When: Wednesday 5.4. 18-20:00
Why: To find like minded people and peer support as we are looking for our place in the Anthropocene
The event will be held in English but you are free to contribute to the discussion in whatever language you feel the most comfortable with.
The event follows the safer space principles of the Museum of Finnish Architecture: https://www.mfa.fi/en/visit-us/the-museum-of-finnish-architecture-principles-for-a-safer-space/
Accessibility information about the museum: https://www.mfa.fi/en/visit-us/accessibility-2/
Pre-reading:
Space Caviar (2021). Non-Extractive Architecture - On Design Without Depletion. Italy: Sternberg Press.
Harriet Harris, Rory Hyde, Roberta Marcaccio, (2021). Architects After Architecture - Alternative Pathways for Practice. New York, NY: Routledge
Moratorium on New Construction
Graphic Novel: Moratorium on New Construction, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes & Zosia Dzierżawska
Podcast: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Het oog van de storm
Podcast: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Future of the American City
Podcast: Hella Hernberg, Arkkitehtuuria ilman rakentamista, Ekologisen rakentamisen näkökulmia