Earth systems are changing. The globe is warming as a result of CO2 emissions, with dramatic consequences in the form of abnormal and intensified climatic events such as floods or fires. At the same time, a series of related metabolic rifts, from ecosystem loss, to species extinction, ocean water acidification, desertification, and the resulting loss of livelihoods, compound to generate environmental destruction and social tensions in the form of wars, famines and mass migrations. The underlying causes of these momentous shifts lie within the environmental and territorial architectures of capitalist modes of production, globalised through colonisation and development policies, and their discriminatory and racial logics. New environmental architectures are urgently needed.
The aim of MA Environmental Architecture is to constitute a new field of knowledge production and practice concerned with the design of alternative forms of co-dependence between life forms and earth systems. The MA Environmental Architecture is a design-led and field-focused course that emphasises a transdisciplinary approach to design research. The programme proposes an unique approach to environmental architecture education that brings together architectural and ethnographic research methods, with the use of technoscientific tools for analysing, classifying, and producing environmental data.
At the same time, students are exposed to the perspectives of those in the frontlines of environmental struggles across the world, to histories and theories of environmental change, and to the most recent advances in the related fields of environmental law and climate justice.
Through its long-term Research Studio units the programme will provide students with the opportunity to engage with live projects in sites of complex environmental change, to work with experts from other disciplines, such as lawyers, geologists or biologists, and to embark on multiple-day field trips where they will be able to engage stakeholders and meet local communities, while testing and exploring environmental research and analysis methods.
