The evolution of “ecological thinking” requires the definition of a set of values that scrutinize, preserve, enhance, or restore the macro and micro interrelationships between living organisms and their physical world. Architects have been conventionally trained to think on the level of individual buildings, which has constrained their contribution to resolving global crises. To amend this limitation, architecture agencies must expand beyond the building footprint to include infrastructure and non-civic structures. Especially those typically designed by non-architects. The increased importance given to technical solutions instead of reshaping political, economic, and cultural forces that form the built environment is at stake in the existing paradigm shift.

Also, Participants will present an object of study to speculate on its future impact on an ecologically centered discourse. What is architecture’s take on infrastructure and non-civic structures? What social demands and inequalities do they generate? How can architects better engage with nature? How can disciplinary expertise serve architecture and its allied fields? This workshop draws from these questions to challenge traditional frameworks and build new forms of thinking.