Institution Building - Chapter 7: Environment

The current epoch is one of accumulation: not only of capital but also of raw, often unruly material; from plastic in the ocean and carbon in the atmosphere to people, buildings and cities. Of anxiety, and of a recognition of the difficulty of finding effective means for intervening in the behaviors and practices that engender these patterns.

The call for systemic change becomes increasingly loud. Architects and landscape designers alike seem to shift away from the object focus of the starchitecture in the past twenty years, giving way to a more integral and systemic practice. A practice that is less interested in spectacular facades than in an environment of data and circular logics. This new aesthetic often evades traditional representation and direct visual mediation. It is like climate and weather. The climate is not the weather. Weather can be experienced, but to understand climate, media is necessary.