Examining the complex social and material relationships between architecture and ecology which constitute modern cultures, this collection responds to the need to extend architectural thinking about ecology beyond current design literatures. This book shows how the ‘habitats’, ‘natural milieus’, ‘places’ or ‘shelters’ that construct architectural ecologies are composed of complex and dynamic material, spatial, social, political, economic and ecological concerns.
With contributions from a range of leading international experts and academics in architecture, art, anthropology, philosophy, feminist theory, law, medicine and political science, this volume offers professionals and researchers engaged in the social and cultural biodiversity of built environments, new interdisciplinary perspectives on the relational and architectural ecologies which are required for dealing with the complex issues of sustainable human habitation and environmental action.
Relational Architectural Ecologies explores the relations between human and political life, and examines issues such as climate change, social and environmental well-being, land and consumption, economically damaging global approaches to design, community ecologies and future architectural practice. The book includes 16 essays, including two visual essays, by leading international experts and academics, including Rosi Braidotti, Lorraine Code, Verena Andermatt Conley and Elizabeth Grosz. Its five-part structure addresses bio-political ecologies and architectures; uncertain, anxious and damaged ecologies; economics, land and consumption; biological and medical architectural ecologies; and relational ecological practices and architectures.
Professor Peg Rawes is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of Architectural History at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Her teaching and research focus on interdisciplinary links between architectural design, philosophy, technology and the visual arts. Publications include: Space, Geometry and Aesthetics (2008) and Irigaray for Architects (2007).
Image: Agnes Denes, Wheatfield - A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan - With Agnes Denes standing in the field, 1982. © Agnes Denes, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York.