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AHO WORKS STUDIES 2011-2012
Highlights
The accelerating transformation of the natural envi-
ronment by humans suggests that the built environ-
ment is now becoming the context for ecosystems.
It may no longer be possible to consider the built
environment as merely asserting a negative impact
on the natural environment; instead, built and natural
environments need to be equally considered as hab-
itats for biodiversity. It now seems necessary to shift
toward a non-anthropocentric model that favours the
interaction of species with the built environment. On
an urban scale, such efforts have long taken shape in
the interdisciplinary work of urban ecology, yet on a
building scale, new methods are not yet clear. In light
of shifts in ecological thinking, how can architecture
develop to include the necessary insights, knowledge,
concepts and working methods? This symposium
looks to further discussion about this changed culture
of environment.
This symposium was organised jointly by the cornell
university Department of Architecture and The Oslo
School of Architecture and Design Research centre
for Architecture and Tectonics and was financed by
the Hans and Roger Strauch Symposium on Sustaina-
ble Design.
Sustaining Sustainability Symposium 2012:
Alternative Approaches in Urban Ecology and
Architecture
Cornell University Department of Architecture,
Abby and Howard Milstein Auditorium, Milstein Hall
3-4 February 2012
Guest lectures
Mark Cousins
25 May 2012
James Bridle
22 September
2011
Daniel Eatock
3 May 2012
Professor, Architectural
Association, London
Poetics of cliché
James bridle, writer, artist, pub-
lisher and founder of the influen-
tial blog
The New Aesthetic
dis-
cussed the place of technology in
culture and the world at large. The
title of bridle’s lecture “Where the
Robots Live - Datacenters, Infra-
structural Landscapes, Eyes in
the Sky and NewWays of Seeing”
proposed a provocative and apt
summary of his talk.
Students and practitioners were
inspired by Daniel Eatock’s lecture
about his design process that uses
wry humour and a reductive, serial
logic to reorient our methods for
making sense of the world. In col-
laboration with the Oslo National
Academy of the Arts and grafill.
