Archinect - Features

The Venice Biennale Swamp Pavilion, Part I: Swamp Radio

2018-08-15T13:36:00-04:00

Though Venice has been the home of the eponymous Biennale since 1895 and the site of Western trade since roughly 400 AD, its longer history as a swamp is often overlooked. Its parcel of land and sea in Northeast Italy is notably hot, humid and rife with mosquitos, and has been since time immemorial. The ecosystems that depends on its swampy soil and vapor are threatened by human settlement, which has made it one of the most popular tourist destinations in modern history.

The Swamp Pavilion, Lithuania's contribution to the 2018 Venice Biennale, is a networked effort to highlight the intersection of human and natural history present in Venice in the middle of what is commonly referred to as the 'Anthropocene.' Organized by Gediminas Urbonas and Nomeda Urbonas, the Swamp School has developed new theories and pedagogies in the format of a 'school,' through public interventions, field trips, workshops, lectures, discussions, chat channels and printed publications.

Its first of three inst...

Architecture of the Anthropocene, Pt. 3: Getting Lost in the Ozone

2015-05-07T12:08:00-04:00

This is the third installment of the recurring feature Architecture of the Anthropocene, which explores the implications of the Anthropocene thesis for architecture. The Anthropocene is a contested name for "the era of geological time during which human activity is considered to be the dominant influence on the environment, climate, and ecology of the earth."

Prior installments can be found here.

Between Sampling and Dowsing: Field Notes from GRNASFCK

2015-04-30T13:10:00-04:00

In case the name didn’t tip you off, let it be said that GRNASFCK is not your average landscape architecture studio. Whether producing disjointed travelogues in Celebration, Florida or organizing rallies for extremophile bacteria in San Francisco, GRNASFCK operates almost like an industrial dredge, unsettling easy or comfortable ideas about the relationship between architecture and ecology, and covering impressive conceptual (and geographic) ground.