Template
,X - NAME LECTURE
Short Intro: (see syllabus on Toledo)
PART I - NAME TEXT
Context:
Summary:
Quotes: (see analysis of text in powerpoint)
Keywords+ Definitions:
PART II - CONTEXT
Timeline:
Historical context:
Debate:
PART III - PRESENT: Architecture as solution
Project name
Context:
Concept:
Solutions on debate
,1 - Acceleration
,1 - Acceleration
Short Intro:
In Thank You for Being Late (2016), Thomas Friedman argues that there is reason to
describe the past decades as an "age of acceleration". In his analysis, the convergence of
globalisation, technology and climate change seems to be at the root of this. In this session,
we will explore a number of ideas and concepts that will serve as the basis for the course:
The idea of acceleration, the crisis of Modernity, the concept of the Anthropocene, etc. We
will also explore the history of the Club of Rome and its famous 1972 report, The Limits to
Growth.
Introduction on the course and its contents:
‘An architect is a mason who has learned Latin’. Adolf Loos, 1908
‘Theory is born when we are forced to become aware of what we are doing’. Terry Eagleton
=> theory can help us position ourselves
‘Architectural history and theory cannot only make the voice of architecture heard at the level of
politics, but also make the voice of politics heard within architecture.’ E-Flux, 2017
=> relation between people who make the building and the broader context
Architecture can help us position ourselves=> towards a multiple definition:
Concepts:
Architectural theory is the body of ideas and concepts that provides the architect with a basis for
developing a responsible practice.
Architecture theory is concerned with the specific components of architecture, its constructive,
formal and spatial means.
Positioning:
Architecture theory defines what architecture is and provides insight into its essential
characteristics. Architecture theory reflects on the role of architecture in society and describes its
cultural and social significance.
Quality standards:
Architecture theory also develops quality standards that architecture worthy of its name must meet.
In doing so, it also implies standards by which projects and buildings can be evaluated.
PART I - Text: The Limits to Growth, 1972
Context:
- Authors: Jorgen Randers, Jay Forrester, Donella Hager-Meadows, Dennis L.
Meadows and William W. Behrens III.
- 30.000 editions sold worldwide, translated
- In the summer of 1970, an international team of researchers at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) began a study of the implications of continued
worldwide growth.
- They examined the five basic factors that determine and, in their interactions,
ultimately limit growth on this planet-population increase, agricultural production,
nonrenewable resource depletion, industrial output, and pollution generation.
- The MIT team fed data on these five factors into a global computer model and then
tested the behaviour of the model under several sets of assumptions to determine
alternative patterns for humankind’s future. The Limits to Growth is the nontechnical
report of their findings.
1
, - The book contains a message of hope as well. The authors state that: “The challenge
of overshoot from decision delay is real, but easily solvable if human society decided
to act,” meaning that forward-looking policy could prevent humanity from
overshooting the aforementioned planetary limits.
- The message of this book still holds today: The earth’s interlocking resources – the
global system of nature in which we all live – probably cannot support present rates
of economic and population growth much beyond the year 2100, if that long, even
with advanced technology.
Summary: p17-24
U Thant (1969) mentions the central, long-term problems of modern man:
- Arms race
- Environmental deterioration
- Population explosion
- Economic stagnation
People think that the survival of human society depends on the speed and the effectiveness
with which the world responds to these issues (only a few people are actively concerned with
seeking solutions)
Human perspectives
- Very different levels of human concern are
represented on the space-time graph
● 2 dimensions: space and time
● Every human concern can be located at
some point in the graph, depending on
how much geographical space it includes
and how far it extends in time
- Most people’s worries are concentrated in the
lower left-hand corner of the graph, almost no one
thinks about what will happen in the time of their
children, they are preoccupied with immediate environment.
- A person’s time and space perspectives depend on their culture, past experience,
and the immediacy of the problems confronting them.
=> the larger the space + the longer the time associated with a problem→ the smaller the
number of people concerned with its solution
=> Observation: Only very few people have a global perspective that extends far into the
future
There can be disappointments and dangers in having a small view
=> a person striving to solve immediate, local problems: can find his efforts defeated by
events occurring in a larger context (ex. farmers and war)
=> There is increasing concern today that most personal and national objectives may
ultimately be frustrated by long-term, global trends such as those mentioned by U Thant
In the first phase of The Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind, there are
questions that have been investigated. Those concerns fall in the upper right-hand corner of
the space-time graph:
2
,X - NAME LECTURE
Short Intro: (see syllabus on Toledo)
PART I - NAME TEXT
Context:
Summary:
Quotes: (see analysis of text in powerpoint)
Keywords+ Definitions:
PART II - CONTEXT
Timeline:
Historical context:
Debate:
PART III - PRESENT: Architecture as solution
Project name
Context:
Concept:
Solutions on debate
,1 - Acceleration
,1 - Acceleration
Short Intro:
In Thank You for Being Late (2016), Thomas Friedman argues that there is reason to
describe the past decades as an "age of acceleration". In his analysis, the convergence of
globalisation, technology and climate change seems to be at the root of this. In this session,
we will explore a number of ideas and concepts that will serve as the basis for the course:
The idea of acceleration, the crisis of Modernity, the concept of the Anthropocene, etc. We
will also explore the history of the Club of Rome and its famous 1972 report, The Limits to
Growth.
Introduction on the course and its contents:
‘An architect is a mason who has learned Latin’. Adolf Loos, 1908
‘Theory is born when we are forced to become aware of what we are doing’. Terry Eagleton
=> theory can help us position ourselves
‘Architectural history and theory cannot only make the voice of architecture heard at the level of
politics, but also make the voice of politics heard within architecture.’ E-Flux, 2017
=> relation between people who make the building and the broader context
Architecture can help us position ourselves=> towards a multiple definition:
Concepts:
Architectural theory is the body of ideas and concepts that provides the architect with a basis for
developing a responsible practice.
Architecture theory is concerned with the specific components of architecture, its constructive,
formal and spatial means.
Positioning:
Architecture theory defines what architecture is and provides insight into its essential
characteristics. Architecture theory reflects on the role of architecture in society and describes its
cultural and social significance.
Quality standards:
Architecture theory also develops quality standards that architecture worthy of its name must meet.
In doing so, it also implies standards by which projects and buildings can be evaluated.
PART I - Text: The Limits to Growth, 1972
Context:
- Authors: Jorgen Randers, Jay Forrester, Donella Hager-Meadows, Dennis L.
Meadows and William W. Behrens III.
- 30.000 editions sold worldwide, translated
- In the summer of 1970, an international team of researchers at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) began a study of the implications of continued
worldwide growth.
- They examined the five basic factors that determine and, in their interactions,
ultimately limit growth on this planet-population increase, agricultural production,
nonrenewable resource depletion, industrial output, and pollution generation.
- The MIT team fed data on these five factors into a global computer model and then
tested the behaviour of the model under several sets of assumptions to determine
alternative patterns for humankind’s future. The Limits to Growth is the nontechnical
report of their findings.
1
, - The book contains a message of hope as well. The authors state that: “The challenge
of overshoot from decision delay is real, but easily solvable if human society decided
to act,” meaning that forward-looking policy could prevent humanity from
overshooting the aforementioned planetary limits.
- The message of this book still holds today: The earth’s interlocking resources – the
global system of nature in which we all live – probably cannot support present rates
of economic and population growth much beyond the year 2100, if that long, even
with advanced technology.
Summary: p17-24
U Thant (1969) mentions the central, long-term problems of modern man:
- Arms race
- Environmental deterioration
- Population explosion
- Economic stagnation
People think that the survival of human society depends on the speed and the effectiveness
with which the world responds to these issues (only a few people are actively concerned with
seeking solutions)
Human perspectives
- Very different levels of human concern are
represented on the space-time graph
● 2 dimensions: space and time
● Every human concern can be located at
some point in the graph, depending on
how much geographical space it includes
and how far it extends in time
- Most people’s worries are concentrated in the
lower left-hand corner of the graph, almost no one
thinks about what will happen in the time of their
children, they are preoccupied with immediate environment.
- A person’s time and space perspectives depend on their culture, past experience,
and the immediacy of the problems confronting them.
=> the larger the space + the longer the time associated with a problem→ the smaller the
number of people concerned with its solution
=> Observation: Only very few people have a global perspective that extends far into the
future
There can be disappointments and dangers in having a small view
=> a person striving to solve immediate, local problems: can find his efforts defeated by
events occurring in a larger context (ex. farmers and war)
=> There is increasing concern today that most personal and national objectives may
ultimately be frustrated by long-term, global trends such as those mentioned by U Thant
In the first phase of The Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind, there are
questions that have been investigated. Those concerns fall in the upper right-hand corner of
the space-time graph:
2
