Archinect - Features

'AI Is a Dangerous Distraction From the Pressing Issues Defining Our Generation'; A Conversation with Liam Young

2023-07-17T08:21:00-04:00

Liam Young was once described by the BBC as “the man designing our future.” In 2023, with open letters penned on the risks of extinction posed by artificial intelligence, such a role should be in high demand.

Young’s speculations on the future take the form of fictional stories that join the dots between culture and technology; a skill which he believes should sit at the core of the architecture profession. Amid the media frenzy on generative AI tools such as Midjourney and ChatGPT, Young stresses the vital need for a creative discipline that measures the dangers of AI against those of climate change: a crisis which Young sees as more dangerous both for its scale and deceptive ubiquity.

In June 2023, Archinect’s Niall Patrick Walsh spoke with Young about his career across design and media, as well as his views on artificial intelligence, climate change, and the role of the architect in addressing both topics. The discussion, edited slightly for clarity, is published below.

This arti...

The Technological Sublime of Non-Human Spaces: A Review of Liam Young's "Machines Landscapes"

2019-03-20T12:00:00-04:00

A significant number of buildings around the world are deliberately uninhabitable by humans. They are, however, designed absolutely towards the service of human needs. The unusual conditions of these buildings, including those of telecommunications networks, automated agriculture and data centers are explored in Machine Landscapes: Architectures of the Post-Anthropocene, a timely publication by Liam Young, the Australian-born architect operating in the spaces between design, fiction and futures, currently teaching at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).

Liam Young and Geoff Manaugh will present their thoughts on the book at Architect Outpost March 23rd at 7pm, followed by a book signing. Machine Landscapes can be preordered from Archinect Outpost here.

You can RSVP here to reserve your spot at the event.

Fear & Wonder: Orienting Ourselves Through Fiction

2017-11-15T12:31:00-05:00

Fear & Wonder was a symposium surrounding the possibilities of world building and pondering of what would be possible and yet, nothing seemed impossible, nothing seemed out of our grasp and in fact, forced us to reckon with how much of our own world we are not aware of.

Ways of Seeing in the Anthropocene: Review of "The Geological Imagination" and "The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform"

2015-12-03T16:51:00-05:00

Jim Inhofe, the senior Senator from Oklahoma, resumed chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in early 2015, following an eight year hiatus. Shortly after, he stood on the Senate floor holding a snowball sealed in a plastic bag. "In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record,” Inhofe began, taking the snowball out of the bag and chucking it across the room. “You know what this is?”