Envisioning Architectural Narratives Edited by Danilo Di Mascio
Envisioning Architectural Narratives
Mar 10, 2023
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Edited by Danilo Di Mascio
EAEA15 Monograph of the 15th Biennial International Conference of the European
Architectural Envisioning Association
ENVISIONING ARCHITECTURAL
Edited by Danilo Di Mascio
© Copyright the University of Huddersfield, 2021 Published by the University of Huddersfield
Copyright © The University of Huddersfield, 2021
Published by the University of Huddersfield The University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield HD1 3DH
https://www.hud.ac.uk
First published July 2021
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Images © as attributed
Every effort has been made to locate copyright holders of materials included and to obtain permission for their publication.
The publisher is not responsible for the continued existence and accuracy of websites referenced in the text.
ISBN: 978-1-86218-189-2 (eBook) ISBN: 978-1-86218-188-5 (Print) DOI: https://doi.org/10.34696/xc3n-d030
Editor: Danilo Di Mascio
Cover Design & Cover Image (‘Notes for an imaginary city’), by Danilo Di Mascio
Design by 52 Degrees North (www.52dn.co.uk)
8 | Foreword
Nic Clear School of Arts and Humanities, The University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom
Future Narratives: The Need for a Progressive Architecture in the Age of Climate Catastrophe and Social Justice
“the ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.”
David Graeber (2015)
Welcome to EAEA 15: ‘Envisioning Architectural Narratives’, I am delighted that the University of Huddersfield has been chosen to host such a prestigious event, given that the previous fourteen conferences have been held at some of the most respected Schools of Architecture in Europe. I would especially like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Danilo Di Mascio for all the hard work that he has put into organising this conference, during perhaps one of the most stressful years that any of us have had to face in our academic careers. Danilo has had help and support from many colleagues, both inside and outside of Huddersfield, but Danilo has shown a singular determination in making sure this conference has gone ahead in-spite of all the difficulties posed by the pandemic.
This conference comes at an important time for the Department of Architecture and 3D Design at the University of Huddersfield as 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the teaching of architecture in the town and being able to host this event, albeit virtually, is a great honour and I hope that we see this event as marking the starting point for the next 100 years of architectural education in Huddersfield. The theme of this conference, ‘Envisioning Architectural Narratives’, is also timely given the changes that are happening in the town of Huddersfield itself, as it rebuilds its identity as a vibrant cultural centre after the decline of the traditional manufacturing industries that have led the local economy since the industrial revolution. How it aligns its new mission alongside the development of new digital and green technologies make it a case study for the way towns and cities across the globe have to create new narratives for themselves in light of rapidly changing external forces. Huddersfield is a very diverse town and encompasses areas of deprivation and neglect, so issues of social justice are of particular relevance and the ability of architecture to contribute to creating a more equitable and inclusive society is of great importance to the University.
The concept of ‘envisioning narratives’ is an important one because it is how we frame the stories around our actions and experiences that will allow us to develop progressive opportunities in the face of the challenges that face contemporary architecture. The challenges of climate catastrophe and social justice in the light
Envisioning Architectural Narratives | 9
of a recovery from a global pandemic requires ingenuity and innovation and a means of developing a collective and collaborative approach to our urban realm, to use Donna Haraway’s highly pertinent phrase we need to ‘make kin’ (Haraway 2016). Architecture, and in particular architectural education, have important roles to play in the development of positive ways to influence the future of the planet, both through what we say and how we say it.
I have been teaching architecture for over 30 years, and I have run a design- studios every year throughout that entire period. Even now as the Dean of a large multi-disciplinary School I believe that it is vital for me to teach design studio, as working with students in developing imaginative ways of addressing contemporary issues allows me to reflect on the context of my own practice as a designer and academic. It also allows me to continue asking ‘what-if’ questions that are pertinent to the wider social and cultural challenges that face us.
Throughout the time I have been a teacher I have been committed to progressive conceptions of futurity that thematically link studio to contemporary social and political issues to allow students to enframe their work within wider challenges but also able to draw upon positive opportunities afforded by technological and cultural transformations. I have always been drawn to references outside of architectural production, in particular novels, films and music have always played an important role in my teaching of architecture, alongside more conventional theoretical, scientific and technological narratives. The attraction of architecture has always been the opportunity to see it as a site where many competing discourses come together and are synthesised into forms of creation, occupation and speculation on how we ‘practice space’ to use Lefebvre’s conception (Lefebvre 1991), where space is something whose meanings are created through how it is performed.
Given such a dynamic view of space the traditional ways in which we design and represent architecture have always seemed problematic, using flat and static representations to describe something immersive leaves a great deal un-realised - as my thesis tutor at PCL, Dr Robin Evans, was keen to point out (Evans 1996). Perhaps this is why I became an adopter of digital technology, and was the first person to run a fully digital unit at the Bartlett (Cook 2000). The move into using animation seemed a logical progression and now for over twenty years I have encouraged students to moving images to generate, develop and represent their ideas using techniques directly taken from film, gaming and more recently extended reality (an archive of student projects from the last 20 years can be seen at http://unitfifteen-archive.com).
For much of the time I have been using the narrative opportunities afforded by the moving image as part of my teaching and research I have also used ideas and concepts taken from science fiction (SF) to imagine a form of progressive futurity that challenges the current narratives of laissez-faire capitalism and the dystopian narratives that dominate much of the popular imagination as the only alternative, given, as Frederic Jameson famously put it, ‘it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism’ (Jameson 2003).
Future Narratives: The Need for a Progressive Architecture in the Age of Climate Catastrophe and Social Justice
10 | Foreword
In 2009 I edited an issue of Architectural Design, titled ‘Architectures of the Near Future’ (Clear 2009), that was thematically organised around the work of JG Ballard who, I believed, had proved more able to conceptualise urban life in the late 20th , early 21st century European city more lucidly than almost any architectural theorist. Indeed, throughout his work he had been able to frame issues as diverse as environmental degradation and destruction, celebrity fetishism and urban anomie with a prescience that was almost unmatched. However, at the heart of all Ballard’s narratives was a dogged insistence of the human ability to move forward, adapt and embrace the unknown.
If many of the storylines of SF tend to present a dystopian future, especially screen-based SF, this might be because they present more compelling spectacle largely facilitated by access to convincing c.g.i. But there are many examples of SF authors who do not conceive of such apocalyptic futures, but explore many different types of future, peopled by different forms of agency and occupying those spaces in very different ways. In this sense SF can be one of the most innovative tools in not only imagining what alternative futures might be like but also imaging what future citizens might be like, how they might live and what forms their alterity that might take. The ways architects can contribute to the creation of such a different world is to also develop convincing models, that explore the possibilities of how these worlds might be occupied, something that is largely absent from many of the theoretical approaches that come from political or technocratic approaches to the future.
Architectural design and SF both, to follow Steven Shaviro’s terminology, ‘take place (conceptually if not grammatically) in the future tense’ and both ‘allow us to imagine what we are unable to know’ (Shaviro 2016). The value of SF in developing architectural ideas is that it facilitates the asking of the ‘what-if’ questions I mentioned previously, and allows the projection of imagined futures under the auspices of a speculative imagination underpinned by the extrapolation of existing, or possible scientific and technological knowledge. By its very nature architectural design is speculative, sometimes those speculations can be highly provocative and sometimes they can be much more modest, or even regressive. In the design projects I have developed in recent years, I have been creating ‘thought experiments’ to imagine an alternative post-capitalist future, based on literary SF, advanced technology and progressive post-capitalist thinking. To make those futures coherent I have created narratives that gives it those projects context, meaning and agency (Clear 2014 & Clear 2018).
In these futuristic speculations it is often too easy to focuses on design and technical innovation rather than looking at other aspects of the construction industry, and an ethical approach not only refers to technical solutions and the ways and types of materials we use but imagining completely different ways of doing things and to be able to achieve this we need compelling arguments to create an environment where profit is no longer the principle driving force. Authors such as Naomi Klein (Klein 2014) argue that as long as we adhere to a system of neo- liberal capitalism then we can never escape the problems of climate catastrophe,
Nic Clear
Envisioning Architectural Narratives | 11
or implement a system of social justice, as the market has too much of a vested interest in maintaining the current inequities. The construction industry, largely predicated on a profits driven model and underpinned by an inherently adversarial model of contractual obligations, is a significant contributor to these problems and it is imperative that alternatives predicated around a more, ethical use of resources and a collaborative model of funding, procurement and construction that are not simply concerned with obtaining the best returns is developed.
That we, as architects, architectural educators and citizens, commit to action in the need to make sure that architectural discourse is central to the development of future ethical approaches to the environment, the management of global resources and the development of social justice seems un-contestable, and yet the construction industry, despite its lip-service to a ‘sustainable’ agenda is still operating in a fashion that contradicts this approach. Indeed, the term sustainability has been so over-used in architecture and the built environment that it has become almost meaningless, what we need is a new vocabulary to replace this term, comprising of concepts that relate to what we do and how we do it from an ethical standpoint.
As a community of academics, we need to tell stories that transform our localities into spaces that are more equitable for all their citizens addressing the two defining issues previously stated, combatting climate catastrophe and achieving greater levels of social justice, indeed one might argue that it would be impossible to address the sources of the climate crisis without addressing the inequalities that mark the current system and vice-versa.
The 1st of August 2021 marked the coming together of the Schools of ‘Art, Design and Architecture’ and ‘Music, Humanities and Media’ to form the School of ‘Arts & Humanities’, one of the biggest multi-disciplinary Schools of its kind in the UK bringing together subjects from Art and Design to Music and Performance, from History and English to Fashion and Textiles and from to Media and Journalism to Architecture and the Built Environment. This academic
Figure. The Gold Mine is a project for a utopian city set in a post-singularity future and is intended to test speculative concepts taken from science fiction within the context of a
formal architectural project. Source: Nic Clear, The Gold Mine, Concept Axonometric 2014.
Future Narratives: The Need for a Progressive Architecture in the Age of Climate Catastrophe and Social Justice
12 | Foreword
year will also see the School of Arts & Humanities starting courses in filmmaking with the launch of the ‘Yorkshire School for Film and Television.’ The School of Arts & Humanities will be framed around activities rooted in the local community but having national and international importance and part of my role as Dean is to help develop a narrative that brings together the various stories that sit at the at the core of the School’s disciplines, to synthesise its existing activities and to help create new opportunities and to allow the School go be part of a meaningful global conversation
This conference and publication represent the type of activity that will be at the heart of the School of Arts & Humanities in its endeavours to further develop world class teaching and research and I am thankful for the EAEA to be able to use this as an opportunity to start that journey.
Professor Nic Clear Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities
August 2021
References Barr, Alfred. H. Jr. (1934) Modern Works of Art: Fifth Anniversary Exhibition
New York: Museum of Modern Art. Clear, N. (Ed) (2009). ‘Architectures of the Near Future’. Architectural Design
vol 201, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. ____ (2014). The Gold Mine: A Ludic Architecture. In Garcia, M. (Ed). Architecture
Design vol 230, Future Details. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. ____ (2018). Subterranean Speculations. In Spiller, N. (Ed). Architectural Design
vol 252, Celebrating the Marvellous: Surrealism and Architecture. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.
Cook, P. (Ed) (2000). Bartlett Book of Ideas. London: Bartlett School of Architecture.
Evans, R. (1996). Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays. London: AA Publications.
David Graeber, D. (2015). The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, Brooklyn NY, London: Melville House Publishing.
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press.
Jameson, F. (2003). Future City, New Left Review 21, May-June 2003. London Klein, N (2014). This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate. London:
Penguin. Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of Space. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Shaviro, S, (2016). Discognition. London: Repeater Books.
Nic Clear
Envisioning Architectural Narratives | 13
Danilo Di Mascio Department of Architecture and 3D Design, School of Arts and Humanities, The University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom
EAEA15: Envisioning Architectural Narratives
Introduction This monograph documents the 15th European Architectural Envisioning
Association Conference, entitled ‘Envisioning Architectural Narratives’, hosted (virtually) by the Department of Architecture and 3D Design, School of Arts and Humanities (former Schoool of Art, Design and Architecture), The University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom, from the 1st to the 3rd of September 2021. The event has continued the mission of the European Architectural Envisioning Association, namely, to create a valuable opportunity for communication and exchange of ideas and experiences in teaching, research and practice, with a particular focus, for this 15th edition, on envisioning the multiple and multifaceted relationships and applications between architecture and narrative. By considering the importance of narrative in humankind’s history, the theme has invited participants to reflect upon three main topics: narrative and analysis, narrative and design, and narrative and representation. Following the approach mentioned by Professor Tom Maver, Chair of EAEA13, in the preface of the proceedings of the conference he organised in Glasgow in 2017, EAEA15 was conceived as a similarly inclusive event which would allow authors to interpret the word ‘narrative’ in relation to architecture in an open way.
My development as an academic, and especially as a researcher, owes a lot to international conferences. When I attended my first conference and presented my research in 2008, just before I started my PhD, I discovered a new world, full of people passionate about their research and willing to share ideas and pieces of advice with colleagues. I have learned a lot by attending other scholars’ presentations, taking notes, exchanging ideas with them and reading their publications. Thanks to conferences, I have established a network of international collaborators, many of whom have also supported such events as members of scientific and international reviewing committees. With some scholars, I have developed long-term collaborations and respectful friendships. Hence, the opportunity to organise a conference was also a way for me to support and thank the international community of academics/researchers who have inspired and informed my work for so many years, and also to foster new exchanges of ideas and collaborations. In fact, organising an international conference on architecture and narrative would also be a means of discovering and gathering scholars interested in this specific theme and related topics.
I started to consider proposing the University of Huddersfield as a possible host for the EAEA conference in 2017, four years prior to the event, thanks to the suggestion by Professor Anetta Kepczynska-Walczak who organised
EAEA12 in Lodz, Poland, the first EAEA conference I attended. The central theme of the EAEA15 conference was developed in 2018 and the first proposal was immediately well received, partly because of the importance of narrative in the architecture field and partly due to the fact that none of the previous 14 conferences organised by the European Architectural Envisioning Association had explored this topic before.
The final proposal was accepted and officially presented on the last day of EAEA14, the conference organised by Professor Laurent Lescop in September 2019 in Nantes, France. Then, once back in Huddersfield, I started to build supporting teams for various committees, comprising a local organising committee, a scientific committee and an international reviewing committee. With the local organising committee, we exchanged several ideas about the practical organisational aspects of the conference in Huddersfield, including options for venues, participants’ accommodation, meals and cultural visits. The idea of hosting the event and welcoming participants from various countries worldwide to our new building, the Barbara Hepworth Building, and our wonderful campus and town was exciting. However, life can be unpredictable and since March 2020, the whole world has been constrained by the Covid19 pandemic that has still not been resolved. In order to avoid unexpected issues caused by this unpredictable situation, to safeguard participants’ safety, and in accordance with the university’s decision not to run large external events on campus in autumn 2021, we decided, unwillingly, to move the whole event online.
Organising the EAEA15 conference during the pandemic, while also running teaching activities and supporting students online, has been challenging but rewarding. Despite the challenging situation, the call for papers was very successful and attracted several interesting contributions from various countries worldwide, and this monograph presents the papers accepted after two double- blind peer review processes.
This publication has gathered a wide selection of writings, viewpoints and references that constitute a precious source of knowledge for all scholars working in academia, whether in teaching or research activities, or in practice. I hope that it will form a valuable source of inspiration and information for scholars interested in architecture and narrative, in the same way as the publications from many other conferences have represented precious…
EAEA15 Monograph of the 15th Biennial International Conference of the European
Architectural Envisioning Association
ENVISIONING ARCHITECTURAL
Edited by Danilo Di Mascio
© Copyright the University of Huddersfield, 2021 Published by the University of Huddersfield
Copyright © The University of Huddersfield, 2021
Published by the University of Huddersfield The University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield HD1 3DH
https://www.hud.ac.uk
First published July 2021
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Images © as attributed
Every effort has been made to locate copyright holders of materials included and to obtain permission for their publication.
The publisher is not responsible for the continued existence and accuracy of websites referenced in the text.
ISBN: 978-1-86218-189-2 (eBook) ISBN: 978-1-86218-188-5 (Print) DOI: https://doi.org/10.34696/xc3n-d030
Editor: Danilo Di Mascio
Cover Design & Cover Image (‘Notes for an imaginary city’), by Danilo Di Mascio
Design by 52 Degrees North (www.52dn.co.uk)
8 | Foreword
Nic Clear School of Arts and Humanities, The University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom
Future Narratives: The Need for a Progressive Architecture in the Age of Climate Catastrophe and Social Justice
“the ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.”
David Graeber (2015)
Welcome to EAEA 15: ‘Envisioning Architectural Narratives’, I am delighted that the University of Huddersfield has been chosen to host such a prestigious event, given that the previous fourteen conferences have been held at some of the most respected Schools of Architecture in Europe. I would especially like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Danilo Di Mascio for all the hard work that he has put into organising this conference, during perhaps one of the most stressful years that any of us have had to face in our academic careers. Danilo has had help and support from many colleagues, both inside and outside of Huddersfield, but Danilo has shown a singular determination in making sure this conference has gone ahead in-spite of all the difficulties posed by the pandemic.
This conference comes at an important time for the Department of Architecture and 3D Design at the University of Huddersfield as 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the teaching of architecture in the town and being able to host this event, albeit virtually, is a great honour and I hope that we see this event as marking the starting point for the next 100 years of architectural education in Huddersfield. The theme of this conference, ‘Envisioning Architectural Narratives’, is also timely given the changes that are happening in the town of Huddersfield itself, as it rebuilds its identity as a vibrant cultural centre after the decline of the traditional manufacturing industries that have led the local economy since the industrial revolution. How it aligns its new mission alongside the development of new digital and green technologies make it a case study for the way towns and cities across the globe have to create new narratives for themselves in light of rapidly changing external forces. Huddersfield is a very diverse town and encompasses areas of deprivation and neglect, so issues of social justice are of particular relevance and the ability of architecture to contribute to creating a more equitable and inclusive society is of great importance to the University.
The concept of ‘envisioning narratives’ is an important one because it is how we frame the stories around our actions and experiences that will allow us to develop progressive opportunities in the face of the challenges that face contemporary architecture. The challenges of climate catastrophe and social justice in the light
Envisioning Architectural Narratives | 9
of a recovery from a global pandemic requires ingenuity and innovation and a means of developing a collective and collaborative approach to our urban realm, to use Donna Haraway’s highly pertinent phrase we need to ‘make kin’ (Haraway 2016). Architecture, and in particular architectural education, have important roles to play in the development of positive ways to influence the future of the planet, both through what we say and how we say it.
I have been teaching architecture for over 30 years, and I have run a design- studios every year throughout that entire period. Even now as the Dean of a large multi-disciplinary School I believe that it is vital for me to teach design studio, as working with students in developing imaginative ways of addressing contemporary issues allows me to reflect on the context of my own practice as a designer and academic. It also allows me to continue asking ‘what-if’ questions that are pertinent to the wider social and cultural challenges that face us.
Throughout the time I have been a teacher I have been committed to progressive conceptions of futurity that thematically link studio to contemporary social and political issues to allow students to enframe their work within wider challenges but also able to draw upon positive opportunities afforded by technological and cultural transformations. I have always been drawn to references outside of architectural production, in particular novels, films and music have always played an important role in my teaching of architecture, alongside more conventional theoretical, scientific and technological narratives. The attraction of architecture has always been the opportunity to see it as a site where many competing discourses come together and are synthesised into forms of creation, occupation and speculation on how we ‘practice space’ to use Lefebvre’s conception (Lefebvre 1991), where space is something whose meanings are created through how it is performed.
Given such a dynamic view of space the traditional ways in which we design and represent architecture have always seemed problematic, using flat and static representations to describe something immersive leaves a great deal un-realised - as my thesis tutor at PCL, Dr Robin Evans, was keen to point out (Evans 1996). Perhaps this is why I became an adopter of digital technology, and was the first person to run a fully digital unit at the Bartlett (Cook 2000). The move into using animation seemed a logical progression and now for over twenty years I have encouraged students to moving images to generate, develop and represent their ideas using techniques directly taken from film, gaming and more recently extended reality (an archive of student projects from the last 20 years can be seen at http://unitfifteen-archive.com).
For much of the time I have been using the narrative opportunities afforded by the moving image as part of my teaching and research I have also used ideas and concepts taken from science fiction (SF) to imagine a form of progressive futurity that challenges the current narratives of laissez-faire capitalism and the dystopian narratives that dominate much of the popular imagination as the only alternative, given, as Frederic Jameson famously put it, ‘it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism’ (Jameson 2003).
Future Narratives: The Need for a Progressive Architecture in the Age of Climate Catastrophe and Social Justice
10 | Foreword
In 2009 I edited an issue of Architectural Design, titled ‘Architectures of the Near Future’ (Clear 2009), that was thematically organised around the work of JG Ballard who, I believed, had proved more able to conceptualise urban life in the late 20th , early 21st century European city more lucidly than almost any architectural theorist. Indeed, throughout his work he had been able to frame issues as diverse as environmental degradation and destruction, celebrity fetishism and urban anomie with a prescience that was almost unmatched. However, at the heart of all Ballard’s narratives was a dogged insistence of the human ability to move forward, adapt and embrace the unknown.
If many of the storylines of SF tend to present a dystopian future, especially screen-based SF, this might be because they present more compelling spectacle largely facilitated by access to convincing c.g.i. But there are many examples of SF authors who do not conceive of such apocalyptic futures, but explore many different types of future, peopled by different forms of agency and occupying those spaces in very different ways. In this sense SF can be one of the most innovative tools in not only imagining what alternative futures might be like but also imaging what future citizens might be like, how they might live and what forms their alterity that might take. The ways architects can contribute to the creation of such a different world is to also develop convincing models, that explore the possibilities of how these worlds might be occupied, something that is largely absent from many of the theoretical approaches that come from political or technocratic approaches to the future.
Architectural design and SF both, to follow Steven Shaviro’s terminology, ‘take place (conceptually if not grammatically) in the future tense’ and both ‘allow us to imagine what we are unable to know’ (Shaviro 2016). The value of SF in developing architectural ideas is that it facilitates the asking of the ‘what-if’ questions I mentioned previously, and allows the projection of imagined futures under the auspices of a speculative imagination underpinned by the extrapolation of existing, or possible scientific and technological knowledge. By its very nature architectural design is speculative, sometimes those speculations can be highly provocative and sometimes they can be much more modest, or even regressive. In the design projects I have developed in recent years, I have been creating ‘thought experiments’ to imagine an alternative post-capitalist future, based on literary SF, advanced technology and progressive post-capitalist thinking. To make those futures coherent I have created narratives that gives it those projects context, meaning and agency (Clear 2014 & Clear 2018).
In these futuristic speculations it is often too easy to focuses on design and technical innovation rather than looking at other aspects of the construction industry, and an ethical approach not only refers to technical solutions and the ways and types of materials we use but imagining completely different ways of doing things and to be able to achieve this we need compelling arguments to create an environment where profit is no longer the principle driving force. Authors such as Naomi Klein (Klein 2014) argue that as long as we adhere to a system of neo- liberal capitalism then we can never escape the problems of climate catastrophe,
Nic Clear
Envisioning Architectural Narratives | 11
or implement a system of social justice, as the market has too much of a vested interest in maintaining the current inequities. The construction industry, largely predicated on a profits driven model and underpinned by an inherently adversarial model of contractual obligations, is a significant contributor to these problems and it is imperative that alternatives predicated around a more, ethical use of resources and a collaborative model of funding, procurement and construction that are not simply concerned with obtaining the best returns is developed.
That we, as architects, architectural educators and citizens, commit to action in the need to make sure that architectural discourse is central to the development of future ethical approaches to the environment, the management of global resources and the development of social justice seems un-contestable, and yet the construction industry, despite its lip-service to a ‘sustainable’ agenda is still operating in a fashion that contradicts this approach. Indeed, the term sustainability has been so over-used in architecture and the built environment that it has become almost meaningless, what we need is a new vocabulary to replace this term, comprising of concepts that relate to what we do and how we do it from an ethical standpoint.
As a community of academics, we need to tell stories that transform our localities into spaces that are more equitable for all their citizens addressing the two defining issues previously stated, combatting climate catastrophe and achieving greater levels of social justice, indeed one might argue that it would be impossible to address the sources of the climate crisis without addressing the inequalities that mark the current system and vice-versa.
The 1st of August 2021 marked the coming together of the Schools of ‘Art, Design and Architecture’ and ‘Music, Humanities and Media’ to form the School of ‘Arts & Humanities’, one of the biggest multi-disciplinary Schools of its kind in the UK bringing together subjects from Art and Design to Music and Performance, from History and English to Fashion and Textiles and from to Media and Journalism to Architecture and the Built Environment. This academic
Figure. The Gold Mine is a project for a utopian city set in a post-singularity future and is intended to test speculative concepts taken from science fiction within the context of a
formal architectural project. Source: Nic Clear, The Gold Mine, Concept Axonometric 2014.
Future Narratives: The Need for a Progressive Architecture in the Age of Climate Catastrophe and Social Justice
12 | Foreword
year will also see the School of Arts & Humanities starting courses in filmmaking with the launch of the ‘Yorkshire School for Film and Television.’ The School of Arts & Humanities will be framed around activities rooted in the local community but having national and international importance and part of my role as Dean is to help develop a narrative that brings together the various stories that sit at the at the core of the School’s disciplines, to synthesise its existing activities and to help create new opportunities and to allow the School go be part of a meaningful global conversation
This conference and publication represent the type of activity that will be at the heart of the School of Arts & Humanities in its endeavours to further develop world class teaching and research and I am thankful for the EAEA to be able to use this as an opportunity to start that journey.
Professor Nic Clear Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities
August 2021
References Barr, Alfred. H. Jr. (1934) Modern Works of Art: Fifth Anniversary Exhibition
New York: Museum of Modern Art. Clear, N. (Ed) (2009). ‘Architectures of the Near Future’. Architectural Design
vol 201, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. ____ (2014). The Gold Mine: A Ludic Architecture. In Garcia, M. (Ed). Architecture
Design vol 230, Future Details. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. ____ (2018). Subterranean Speculations. In Spiller, N. (Ed). Architectural Design
vol 252, Celebrating the Marvellous: Surrealism and Architecture. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.
Cook, P. (Ed) (2000). Bartlett Book of Ideas. London: Bartlett School of Architecture.
Evans, R. (1996). Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays. London: AA Publications.
David Graeber, D. (2015). The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, Brooklyn NY, London: Melville House Publishing.
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press.
Jameson, F. (2003). Future City, New Left Review 21, May-June 2003. London Klein, N (2014). This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate. London:
Penguin. Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of Space. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Shaviro, S, (2016). Discognition. London: Repeater Books.
Nic Clear
Envisioning Architectural Narratives | 13
Danilo Di Mascio Department of Architecture and 3D Design, School of Arts and Humanities, The University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom
EAEA15: Envisioning Architectural Narratives
Introduction This monograph documents the 15th European Architectural Envisioning
Association Conference, entitled ‘Envisioning Architectural Narratives’, hosted (virtually) by the Department of Architecture and 3D Design, School of Arts and Humanities (former Schoool of Art, Design and Architecture), The University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom, from the 1st to the 3rd of September 2021. The event has continued the mission of the European Architectural Envisioning Association, namely, to create a valuable opportunity for communication and exchange of ideas and experiences in teaching, research and practice, with a particular focus, for this 15th edition, on envisioning the multiple and multifaceted relationships and applications between architecture and narrative. By considering the importance of narrative in humankind’s history, the theme has invited participants to reflect upon three main topics: narrative and analysis, narrative and design, and narrative and representation. Following the approach mentioned by Professor Tom Maver, Chair of EAEA13, in the preface of the proceedings of the conference he organised in Glasgow in 2017, EAEA15 was conceived as a similarly inclusive event which would allow authors to interpret the word ‘narrative’ in relation to architecture in an open way.
My development as an academic, and especially as a researcher, owes a lot to international conferences. When I attended my first conference and presented my research in 2008, just before I started my PhD, I discovered a new world, full of people passionate about their research and willing to share ideas and pieces of advice with colleagues. I have learned a lot by attending other scholars’ presentations, taking notes, exchanging ideas with them and reading their publications. Thanks to conferences, I have established a network of international collaborators, many of whom have also supported such events as members of scientific and international reviewing committees. With some scholars, I have developed long-term collaborations and respectful friendships. Hence, the opportunity to organise a conference was also a way for me to support and thank the international community of academics/researchers who have inspired and informed my work for so many years, and also to foster new exchanges of ideas and collaborations. In fact, organising an international conference on architecture and narrative would also be a means of discovering and gathering scholars interested in this specific theme and related topics.
I started to consider proposing the University of Huddersfield as a possible host for the EAEA conference in 2017, four years prior to the event, thanks to the suggestion by Professor Anetta Kepczynska-Walczak who organised
EAEA12 in Lodz, Poland, the first EAEA conference I attended. The central theme of the EAEA15 conference was developed in 2018 and the first proposal was immediately well received, partly because of the importance of narrative in the architecture field and partly due to the fact that none of the previous 14 conferences organised by the European Architectural Envisioning Association had explored this topic before.
The final proposal was accepted and officially presented on the last day of EAEA14, the conference organised by Professor Laurent Lescop in September 2019 in Nantes, France. Then, once back in Huddersfield, I started to build supporting teams for various committees, comprising a local organising committee, a scientific committee and an international reviewing committee. With the local organising committee, we exchanged several ideas about the practical organisational aspects of the conference in Huddersfield, including options for venues, participants’ accommodation, meals and cultural visits. The idea of hosting the event and welcoming participants from various countries worldwide to our new building, the Barbara Hepworth Building, and our wonderful campus and town was exciting. However, life can be unpredictable and since March 2020, the whole world has been constrained by the Covid19 pandemic that has still not been resolved. In order to avoid unexpected issues caused by this unpredictable situation, to safeguard participants’ safety, and in accordance with the university’s decision not to run large external events on campus in autumn 2021, we decided, unwillingly, to move the whole event online.
Organising the EAEA15 conference during the pandemic, while also running teaching activities and supporting students online, has been challenging but rewarding. Despite the challenging situation, the call for papers was very successful and attracted several interesting contributions from various countries worldwide, and this monograph presents the papers accepted after two double- blind peer review processes.
This publication has gathered a wide selection of writings, viewpoints and references that constitute a precious source of knowledge for all scholars working in academia, whether in teaching or research activities, or in practice. I hope that it will form a valuable source of inspiration and information for scholars interested in architecture and narrative, in the same way as the publications from many other conferences have represented precious…
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