The narrative of architecture: Tales of an Utopia by Francisco Labastida

THE N ARRATIVE OF ARCHITECTURE TALES OF AN UTOPIA Francisco Labastida Te c n o l ó g i c o d e M o n t e r r e y B A | 2 0 2 2

THE WORLD WE MADE | 1

CONTENTS 05

Foreword by Francisco Labastida

An utopian life?

Credits

One with the environment

Introduction

The face of our city

The world we made

Te c h n o l o g y i s a p a r t o f u s

We l c o m e t o C i u d a d Fé n i x

An independent place

Basic indicators for balance

References

Breaking the line

Acknowledgements

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A jump into the future, an exploration into the question: What if? A poem, a love letter to the world of architecture, art, and design. A political act, a spiritual statement, a fool´s errand to convey a simple story that questions complex ideas. ITESM Hu. Francisco Labastida

*All artwork belongs to the author unless otherwise THE WORLD WE MADE | 3 stated.

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Foreword

As we approach the end of our career, we do so with a peculiar tic: we cautiously ask ourselves what the future will be like based on current trends, but we almost never ask the big philosophical question: what should the future look like? Being accused of “utopian thinking” is a particular insult in our time.

Our life dreams the Utopia. Our death achieves the ideal. - Victor Hugo

“

We take pride of ourselves on being down to earth, realistic, and sober. We proceed as humble futurologists, who see the future as something to be deduced, rather than bolder philosophers and creators, who see the future as something that can be imagined and therefore, in part, called into existence. Thinking utopian is a primary political act. It involves refusing to be limited by our current obsession with the here and now to focus on the world as it could and should be to maximize human flourishing.

Page 2 Factory Forge Francisco Labastida

On the other hand, humanity has long told stories through the image, beginning, perhaps, with the cave paintings of ancient civilizations. The purpose of a visual diary is primarily for the author to express himself personally- a cathartic experience for the reader to understand the space and live it in his mind. That is why I have decided to seek an architectural answer through a visual narrative.

Entrance to the City Francisco Labastida

FOREWORD | 5

This book belongs to my friends and family who supported me and inspired me everyday to give my best. To a special person, who one way or another helped me become the human I am now and see the world as I see it now. Thank you all.

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Credits Arch. Anabel Barreda González Arch. Daniel Savedra Olivo

THE WORLD WE MADE | 7

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THE WORLD WE MADE | 9

Introduction

The idea of behind this project started on thinking of a future scenario. This scenario was imagined with problems of their own. Naturally these problems were thought out from our own present. But a key factor here was that the way these future problems would be solved couldn’t necessarily be with today’s solutions. In my mind, I had the benefit of presenting futuristic problems, but also futuristic solutions. The main problem I was interested in was the Architecture of Waste. The global material crises are imminent. In the very near future, recycling will no longer be a choice for those who care about the environment, but a necessity for everyone. This means that a paradigm shift in domestic behaviour, manufacturing, construction, and design is inevitable. From this problem I started looking into trends, solutions- past and present, and possible worries I had for this future. Some concerns I had were about the future of reusable materials, consumption, what will be the future of the artistic sense of architecture if the future demands a more practical way of thinking? The scenario that was born out of this process of thinking was the concept of Net Zero Waste. This concept coincidentally aligned with my personal state of mind. At that time, I was wondering what would be my role in the world regarding my architectural skills, will I be part of this process of creating waste? One of my endgame goals is to live in harmony with nature, taking from her but also giving in return, a symbiotic relation. I would like to have a space where more like-minded people would co-exist. Of course, this vision would be considered a utopia. But why not? Why not design a utopia? It became an opportunity to explore a dream of mine, make it “real” and share it with others, share my personal vision of the world,

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life, architecture. This project strengthened my waning connection with architecture at that time and gave me hope to perhaps fulfil this vision of mine soon. Thus, I enthusiastically pulled all my strength and skills to better explain this utopia. Now, I understand my utopia is not the one answer to a problem. My purpose in this project is to give strength to my argument, give it a thick armour so that it will not be easy to discard as an idea. Given the context of time and academic objectives there exist numerous limitations and questions of which I gave my best to answer through numerous images- many of which you’ll see in this book. Page 8-9 UTOPIAN CITYSCAPE Labastida

STORYBOARD CONCEPT Labastida

INTRODUCTION | 11

THE WORLD WE MADE

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The world of the old ones was so different than ours, they had built incredible cities, towers that reached the stars, but a darkness came, and their cities turned to graves. One by one cities collapsed without energy, turning their citizens back into the nomadic life. No old city stood the test of time. Without them, the land started to change, their great cities faded away, and in their place came new life. Over time, one by one the tribes came back together and rebuilt societies, rebuilt their communities from scratch, some small and humble some powerful as kingdoms. They say my city was one of the first in this new land. We keep contact with other cities through the net. Technology is how we exchange knowledge and resources with the world. But no one wants to leave, why would we? Inside our cities we have everything we need, for the needs of humanity have changed. We learned this world was never ours. We always shift. A dangerous balance between men and nature. STORYBOARD Labastida

-Khai.

THE WORLD WE MADE | 13

February 2071 Good day Askim. Last Monday I watered the plants, well, saying I did it wouldn’t be exactly the truth. I used the automatic thingy. I know you always preferred to water them yourself but, well I’m getting old, and I’ve always been a lazy bum. Today was the usual. I went to Silo Sophia* to check again why this week’s package didn’t arrive. They say they haven’t figured out yet what is causing the misdirection to another maoai* And with the moving process going on they say its going to take a while because everyone is busy on it. On my way back I stopped at the fabricator* to say hi to Mitha. As usual, he is so busy working. I always wondered how the big tree would look like without all the machines, cables, and circuits around it. I wonder if it wishes to be finally free in a way. Would it miss us? Mitha gave me a ride back home on his musky*, he loves his hovering bike, they do look like the ones we saw on old Star Wars films. I used to love those things but now I do feel perhaps they are too loud, and Mitha drives it so fast, gives me the goosebumps. The good ones though. He is such a great boy, Askim. He looks happy and works hard. He says he is eager to meet the new land where we´ll move the city. When we were young, we had the same dream of going out, see the world outside our walls. As I watch the sunset, I smell the scent from the wood panel on the terrace you helped installed. It brought back good memories. Well, it felt like a usual day except it wasn’t. Today last year was the day your soul left us. I know you told me to not feel sad for too long and its alright. But from time to time I do feel gloomy, as now I am tearing a little bit, thinking that now I must remember your for longer than I’ve known you. I miss you. And now, leaving the beach where we scattered your ashes makes me sentimental. We both endured this hard transition from the old world to this new way of living. And now, with you not around anymore and this city in the process of also disappearing I’m just having a tough time connecting to this world. Both my homes will be gone, leaving no trace behind except memories. Khai.

WELCOME TO CIUDAD FÉNIX We only had each other to rebuild our homes. With the help from the network of cities our rose up from the ruins of the old world, from its ashes. So, we decided to call it Fénix, Ciudad Fénix. A new dawn for humanity. -Khai.

March 2071 Good day Askim, Today I had to fix the power converter from the windows, some of the energy wasn’t being properly marked on the storage battery. It took me a while, and once I got it done it was mid-day so it was so I hot I had to go to the beach. I noticed the waves are coming closer to the houses, so perhaps the scientists are right about us moving further south. I remember somethings about our life in the old world. Back then everything was, well, normal, but now looking back I realize our old lifestyle was unsustainable. We were a plague for the earth, so she responded back with natural disasters, diseases from the melted poles came with the ocean currents. The air in the cities became suffocating as it added to the increasing heat from the greenhouse effect. It was already a real mess those last years before the energy blackouts. And after the collapse, the world became what we only saw in movies. Leaving our homes without a clear direction was so daunting for many of us. We were used to all the old commodities, so unlearning those habits to adapt in nature became a hard transition. But a necessary one, otherwise, our survival was at risk. Now I’m just thankful that many years later we found our way back to live in balance with nature. Cities rose back from the ashes and rubble of the old ones, only this time our connection between the cities was damaged. It was strange at first, being unable to travel to other cities, other parts of the world, population and density control became primordial in the new world. But just being able to have a settled home after years of nomad life was a miracle. When the internet was back everything started to become easier to build, as designs from all over the world were shared to help build the fabricators and then our cities. I believe what helped grow our city and many others was our strong sense unity. Our vision of the world we once knew was changed from the foundation. Guided by our Japanese neighbours we were able to fell back to on centuries-old tradition of cooperatives- in retailing, agriculture, forestry, small-scale manufacturing, house building and so on. I must go now Askim, tonight it’s my turn to do dinner for the maoai. Its always good to be part of a close group of people. Its like having a family who supports you, even when they aren’t really blood relatives. Khai.

WELCOME TO CIUDAD FENIX15|

BASIC INDICATORS FOR BALANCE

TATAVIAM RESERVOIR

CROP FIELDS PEOPLE (SOCIAL) SILO MARIA

ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE

COMMUNICATIONS CENTRE

CENTRAL FABRICATOR

Health, education, income inequality, work-life balance, ratio of wage earners to dependents, crime, housing, and living costs

NORTHERN FABRICATOR SAOIRSE PARK

ARENA

PROFIT (ECONOMIC HEALTH)

TRAM ROUTE

HEALTH CLINIC

Energy consumption and renewable energy share, waste management, green space, sanitation, water, greenhouse gas emissions, natural catastrophe risk, and air pollution

BACALAR SEA

CITY HALL TONGVA ISLAND

DUN TYNNE ISLAND

CHUMASH DESERT SILO SOFIA

SANITATION FACILITIES

PLANET (ENVIRONMENTAL)

TRADE & COMMERCE OFFICE

BANHAM ISLAND

SOUTHERN FABRICATOR

SCHOOL DISTRICT CORONATA ISLAND

100

250

500

Transport infrastructure, ease of doing business, tourism, GDP per capita, the city’s importance in global economic networks, Internet connectivity, and employment rates

Page 14-15 NUEVA FÉNIX CONCEPT Labastida

DESALINATOR

NUEVA FÉNIX MAP V02 Labastida

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A city built from the ashes of an old world. After the collapse of cities as we know them, humanity was able to rethink their approach of a city. Utilizing many ideas from old Marxism, ecologism, capitalism and circular economy they were able to create an ideal model of a city, an Utopia. With the help of technology and ancient traditions were they able to conform a profound sense of community and a sustainable connection with nature. The belief system behind the society of these Utopias is a mix of Zen Buddhism, Taoism and spiritual ecology.

The life journey of the inhabitants of the new world is unbound by the ego self, meaning that they shifted from having a power/money-centred life, to a more holistic growth pursuit. These communities value mental growth, physical growth, and spiritual growth. Every individual has different purposes in life regarding themselves and their role within society and nature.

SURF CONCEPT Labastida

THE NEW MAN Labastida

RENEW & AWAKEN YOUR SPIRIT

SCHOOL CONCEPT Labastida

SPIRIT EN

CIO

B SU

AWARENESS

CLEANSE & NOURISH YOUR BODY

BODY

EMOTIONS

MIND

QUIET & FOCUS YOUR MIND

KOKORO Labastida

YOGA SESSION Labastida

BASIC INDICATORS FOR BALANCE |17

BREAKING THE LINE

Unlike natural ecosystems, which operate in cycles—plants grow in soil, animals eat plants, dung replenishes soil—the industrial economy is largely linear. On the diagram in the next page, fat, coloured currents of the four types of raw material—minerals, ores, fossil fuels, and biomass—surged from left to right, splitting and braiding as they became products that met seven human needs. Sand went into concrete apartment towers on six continents. Metal ore became ships, cars, and also combine harvesters—in a single year we harvested 22.2 billion tons of biomass, just to feed us all. Fossil fuels powered those vehicles, kept us warm, became plastic, became all kinds of things. The total flow into the economy in 2015 was 102.3 billion tons. After our needs are met, that’s the problem—the mother of all environmental problems, in fact, waste, shown as grey fog, explained by Marc de Wit. Marc leads Circle Economy’s strategic partnerships and consulting programme. He is the main author of the recently launched Circularity Gap

Report in which Circle Economy has launched a metric that measures the circular state of the world. He is an experienced strategy consultant with 10 years of experience in advising companies and governments in developing sustainable strategies. In 2015, he explained, about two-thirds of the material we scratched from the planet slipped through our fingers. More than 67 billion tons of hard-won stuff was lost, most of it scattered irretrievably. Plastic trash drifted into rivers and oceans; so did nitrates and phosphates leaching from fertilized fields. A third of all food rotted, even as the Amazon was deforested to produce more. Think of an environmental problem, and chances are it’s connected to waste. That includes climate change: It happens because we burn fossil fuels and scatter the waste—carbon dioxide—into the atmosphere. To get along on this Earth, we must do just one thing: Stop wasting so much of it. De Wit pointed to a thin arrow that circled back, from right to left, along the bottom of the diagram, representing all the material we’d managed to capture through recycling, composting, and so on. It was only 9.3 billion tons: just 9 percent of the total. The circular economy doesn’t aim to end growth; it aims to bend how we do things back into harmony with nature, so that growth can continue. “Prosperity in a world of finite resources,” as European environment commissioner Janez Potočnik once put it, in the foreword to an Ellen MacArthur Foundation report. One man who definitely thinks it could happen, and whose work has proved revelatory to many others, is American architect William McDonough. With German chemist Michael Braungart, he wrote the visionary 2002 book Cradle to Cradle, which argues that products and economic processes could

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Every year we transform more than 100 billion tons of raw material into products. Less than a quarter becomes buildings, cars, or other long-lasting things. Less than 10 percent cycles back into the economy. The circular economy movement aims to increase that number and reduce the enormous amount of waste.

be designed such that all waste becomes fodder for something else. Kunzig, 2020. This story appears in the March 2020 issue of National Geographic magazine.

GLOBAL RESOURCES, 2015 in billions of tons NatGeo

In the context of this narrative, circular economy has become not only a necessity but an obligatory model for all new cities. In their 2002 book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart presented an integration of design and science that provides enduring benefits for society from safe materials, water and energy in circular economies and eliminates the concept of waste. The book put forward a design framework characterized by three principles derived from nature: Everything is a resource for something else. In nature, the “waste” of one system becomes food for another. Everything can be designed to be disassembled and safely returned to the soil as biological nutrients or re-utilized as high-quality materials for new products as technical nutrients without contamination. Nueva Fénix and many other utopias in the new world are able to reuse materials from old buildings. Thanks to technology advances people can repurpose these materials, these nutrients as the book describes them. These nutrients, both biological and technical are then used to make everything, from furniture, to walls, vehicles, and structures. This processes occurr in a dedicated installation—Fabricators.

FABRICATOR EXPLORATION Labastida

BREAKING THE LINE | 19

Tropical vegetation maintains thermal comfort Pure Air dispenser

Household

S TAY I N G COOL All of the buildings in Ciudad Fénix are placed on a surface 3 meters above ground level. Most of the city functions are placed in this subterrenean level. Below this basement exists a pipeline system that carries water from the ocean, the water pre-cools the air below ground level. The constant cool air maintains every building comfortable even when the external temperature changes. Heat reflectors on most households impede hot air to circulate inside the space while extracting warm air out.

Wind Tower

Air filter

Mechanical Foundations

Heat reflector for use at night

External battery to collect energy from windows in facade.

Crop storage

Pre-fabricated panels made from sandstone, wheat and a mixture of metalic residue Earth pre-cooling pipeline

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Water mirror are used on some public plazas to refresh the air

A citizen using his hoverboard

Rainwater storage

Water & Crops pipeline

BUILDING FROM WA S T E

Ciudad Fenix designs and creates their buildings in the Fabricators. The materials used in construction processes mostly come from recovered materials from old world buildings. Metal, concrete, brick, and wood are some of the recovered materials used to create new artifacts. Fluid extracted from wheat grains mixed with sandstone revealed to be a terrific glutinous organic mass. This mass mixed with recovered materials produces structurally strong panels used in construction.

HOUSEHOLD CROSSECTION Labastida

AN UTOPIAN LIFE? | 21

ONE WITH THE ENVIRONMENT

Page 10 AERIAL CONCEPT EXPLORATION Labastida

CITY FUNCION DIAGRAM Labastida

FOOD DISTRIBUTION EXPLORATION Labastida

Looking at a diagram from Peter Stoyko I wonder how a city would work in balance with its environment. Inspired by his graphic style I tried to adapt such a concept of symbiotic relationship between the houses and the city. I was quite interesting to explore how a city needs the houses just as much each individual house needs the city. I also realized that a city even if it is perfectly automatic and independent still working is needed to give the citizens purpose. So, I figured if there could be such a space where the sustainability of the city is built by its own people. A common objective to give meaning to a social question. A space where people build, adapt, reuse, repurpose materials to create their home.

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SILO SCALE EXPLORATION Labastida

DESALINATORS SCALE EXPLORATION Labastida

ONE WITH THE ENVIRONMENT | 23

T H E FA C E O F O U R C I T Y

HOUSEHOLDS AERIAL LAYOUT Labastida

HOUSEHOLDS STUDY Labastida

INSIDE THE LIVING SPACE STUDY Labastida

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STREETVIEW SCENE Labastida

STREETVIEW SECTION Labastida

THE FACE OF OUR CITY | 25

A strong design motif that I lean into are the dome structures, and that’s something that’s very iconic of ancient middle eastern architecture. My goal here was to really have the right combination of shapes and proportions. I wanted to augment the landscape to create a familiar look from ancient architecture but yet seeing something new, futuristic like, similar to what Star Wars does. When designing we, as architects, often underestimate the capacity of a space to be full of activity. My aim was to create an ambience full of movement, where citizens would pass by connect, interact. A right balance between natural and urban environment inside a city is tricky for me so I tried to give the few natural elements a purpose that impacts the quality of people’s lives, not just an aesthetic reason.

NEIGHBORHOOD AERIAL LAYOUT V01 Labastida

The art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge played a huge part in my process of world design. Many of the idea’s aesthetic I envisioned in my city are similar with Batuu, the fictional outpost depicted in The art of Star Wars: Galaxys Edge. The city I designed uses futuristic technology yes, but it keeps ancient traditions and architecture. Much of the inspiration came from middle eastern cities, such as Istanbul. The atmosphere I wanted to convey was a sense of close community, who works in unison within themselves and the environment. The idea behind having an underground level with all the pipelines and functions of the city was so that when the city eventually gets dismantled due to climatic events it would do so without leaving a trace in the environment. All the buildings would be easily picked up and moved to a new place, much like a circus. That is why I find very interesting the concept of ephemeral immortality in a city or future settlements.

NEIGHBORHOOD MATERIAL EXPLORATION Labastida

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April 2071, Good day Aşkım Last week Mitha and his crew came to start dismantling the house of Ms. Mitsu. I couldn’t believe how fast the process was. They first took out the doors and windows, then the prefab organic panels. After disassembling the ferrosteel structure they had to close the pipeline system below so they could dissolve them. After it they just cover the site with sand and soil and plant a little tree which will grow with the water that run through the pipeline, nurturing the land above for new flora to grow. Its quite poetic when you think about it. All the materials will be remanufactured and used to build the house again on our next location. I’ve always found fascinating how we sourced many materials from the old buildings. Actually, Mitha just started a few months ago working in the process of how they reuse the materials salvaged and create stronger ones to build with. Well, you know everything is done in the fabricators. We always said it was good that at least we got to grow our own fruits and some vegetables at home. Which reminds me, tomorrow I have to pick those apples before they fall and the birds will pick them for me. I will also start the matrix marathon this Friday. I remember enjoying watching old movies on the Tv, gosh, remember the TVs? Now with the holographic projection movies look like 3D ones, I think I like them better now. Although it’s a shame pretty much everything is CGI as no one can leave the cities. That’s why I prefer to watch documentaries, I envy scientists for they are the only ones who can venture outside and see the real world. Still, we can’t complain. We have everything we need here, food, shelter, sports, education. We are growing and enduring hoping we will go back to how we use to live. And perhaps we will.

Khai.

THE FACE OF OUR CITY |

When designing my utopia I took inspiration from various other futuristic visions, especially from sci-fi movies such as Star Wars, Dune, Blade Runner and many other videogames. Most of them had in common that even if the architecture is perfect, it cannot sustain a divided community, social wise. So, I envision this as part of my narrative- a community driven city. I would like the citizens to feel connected to everything and everyone, so their existence has a purpose. Joining communities can form maoaisA social support group that forms to provide varying support from social, financial, health, or spiritual interests. One of the things that I paid very close attention to when designing all this was really trying to tell a story with the designs. Why is it there? Why is that material here? Why is the house built the way it is? Doing so with use of architectural plans and concept art brings a fun way of explaining a world.

The concept of Moais dates back thousands of years from the islands of Japan. One of Okinawa’s ancestral traditions is to create strong bonds between local communities, groups of people who have common interests try to help each other. This way of understanding society is what is known as moai. These social groups contribute to feeling accepted, useful and safe in the face of adversity, since it provides well-being, maintains their emotional stability and, in addition, the financial, since if a member has economic problems, they can be helped through the savings generated by the group. In Ciudad Fénix, the moais live in proximity, this helps semi-private spaces to be more of use and to motivate to be involved. Dining rooms, kitchens, bathrooms (it is a private space but there are many so there is no problem with not having one next to your house.) -Khai.

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TECHNOLOGY IS A PART OF US

ENERGY THROUGH WINDOWS EXPLORATION Labastida

STRUCTURE EXPLORATION Labastida

TECHNOLOGY IS A PART OF US29|

Technology is already a part of us in the present. I am not reinventing the wheel, and I have the narrative freedom to provide comfortable solutions to the city. But the real question wasn´t in the how? But on the why? I envision the houses in this future as LEGOs, where you can put together to build bigger structures. I believe construction will become more practical, adapting to the users ´needs. Following a circular economy model the buildings will be adapted, repaired, reused to push the materials to their full capacity. I call this ephemeral immortality- a product that can last a great deal of time, or if need to be, dismantled, and repurposed with ease. I understand nowadays people mistake a good building with big chunk of concrete and steel that will stand there forever. But let’s ask ourselves what if humanity changes faster than the lifespan of the material? Then all that money and material will be for waste because it served a purpose of an older society. The needs change, the styles change.

FRAGANCES IN WOOD EXPLORATION Labastida

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AN INDEPENDENT PLACE Technology is already a part of us in the present. I am not reinventing the wheel, and I have the narrative freedom to provide comfortable solutions to the city. But the real question wasn´t in the how? But on the why? I envision the houses in this future as LEGOs, where you can put together to build bigger structures. I believe construction will become more practical, adapting to the users ´needs. Following a circular economy model the buildings will be adapted, repaired, reused to push the materials to their full capacity. I call this ephemeral immortalitya product that can last a great deal of time, or if need to be, dismantled, and repurposed with ease. I understand nowadays people mistake a good building with big chunk of concrete and steel that will stand there forever. But let’s ask ourselves what if humanity changes faster than the lifespan of the material? Then all that money and material will be for waste because it served a purpose of an older society. The needs change, the styles change.

FUTURE OF THE CITY EXPLORATION Labastida

CITY MAP V01 Labastida

AN INDEPENDENT PLACE31|

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While doing the function diagram of the city it caught my attention that these fabricators where an important component of the city. They where the heart of city, as they are what build their houses, their walls, their transport, and artifacts. So, I envisioned this place not only as a factory but as a spiritual space. For the key component of my utopia is that when it disappears, it doesn’t leave behind any residual waste harmful for the environment. On the contrary, I would wish when this city is dismantled it will leave only a better natural environment than the one it found at the beginning.

FABRICATOR CONCEPT Labastida

FABRICATOR SECTION Labastida

May 2071 Good day Askim, Moving day got ahead in schedule due to sudden weather changes, so this our last month here. Mitha and I are living in the last shelter with many others from our area. We are the last ones to be moved to the new city. The dismantling process was way faster than I expected. First the houses were taken out piece by piece with the help of robots and machines. It took about 30 minutes to dismantle a normal size building, not considering the time it took to take everything to the evac centre to store our belongings for moving day. They are leaving the sub-level at last, disconnecting all the pipelines, retracting the mechanical foundations, all that mumbo jumbo techno stuff. In the end there shouldn’t be a trace there was a city, which makes me a tad sad. All those memories we made together, its like saying goodbye to them, saying goodbye to you. I don’t know if others feel the same as me. I mean, some of us grew inside these walls, and after all that trouble we went through to finally find a place to call home, and then saying goodbye to it. I´ve read about the philosophy of letting go. The last couple of days looking at the ocean I’ve come to understand how important it has been in our lives. The ocean represents a home. It soothes me, its waves comfort me. Its roar makes me feel heard and unjudged. It humbles me and at the same time it inspires me. And in the coming and going of the waves I learned to let go. Mitha says it might hurt at first, but once the pain is gone, in time you will feel more alive than you have ever felt. And you will start to see things from a totally different perspective. Perhaps he is right. Perhaps, I will in time understand better than ever, that letting go is a sign of strength, courage, and great love, and not a sign of weakness or lack of love. Perhaps, letting go is the right thing, because I trust that the beauty and flow of the water, the universe. This is what true love is all about. This is the last time ill write to you for a while, just until we get settled in our new home, a new city. What can be the name of this new place? Yours forever, Khai.

AN INDEPENDENT PLACE | 3

This project has been an amalgamation of not only my skills but also of my philosophies, my way of thinking and of how I see life and architecture. In this process I’ve only come to understand the importance of us designers to not be afraid of imagining. Through his project I grew out of my comfort zone and ventured into the before unknown territories of concept art. I believe in the richness found in the combination of concept art, graphic design, and architecture, which makes a project even more immersive. The short narrative conveyed through journal entries served for me also in a personal level to figure out what kind of human, architect, man I want to be in this little world we call home, and which really needs our help. I believe the ideas and drawings portrayed in this work can serve everyone to understand how important nature is to us and how through utopian thinking we can design together a future where we can coexist. But we need to listen to the will of the people, the will of nature, treat all as brilliant equals. With this work I implore great leaders to lead with all the grace of which we are capable and to be the authors of our own fate. Let’s band together and endeavour, clasp our hands together, as our ancestors have and stand the test of time forever.

Francisco Labastida.

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References

Oecd.org. 2022. Biodiversity Chapter of the OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050: The Consequences of Inaction - OECD. [online] Available at: <https://www.oecd.org/env/indicators-modelling-outlooks/ biodiversitychapteroftheoecdenvironmentaloutlookto2050theconsequencesofinaction.htm#:~:text=Globally%2C%20terrestrial%20 biodiversity%20(measured%20as,shrink%20in%20area%20by%2013%25> [Accessed 15 June 2022]. Moore, T. (1949). Utopia. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Kunzig, R., 2022. Here’s how a ‘circular economy’ could save the world. [online] NatGeo. Available at: <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ magazine/article/how-a-circular-economy-could-save-the-world-feature> [Accessed 15 June 2022]. Ratcliffe, A. and Trowbridge, S., 2021. The art of Star Wars : Galaxy’s edge. 1st ed. New York: Abrams. Sudarshan Nadathur, J., 2022. Ancient Diets and Nutrition: Back to the Past for Feeding Future Populations | SciTech Connect. [online] Scitechconnect.elsevier.com. Available at: <https://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/ancient-diets-nutrition-past-feeding-future-populations/> [Accessed 15 June 2022]. The School of Life. 2022. THE IMPORTANCE OF UTOPIAN THINKING. [online] Available at: <https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/16496-2/> [Accessed 15 June 2022]. Verne, Jules, 1828-1905. (19461925). Twenty thousand leagues under the sea. New York :C. Scribner’s sons

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Acknowledgments

I owe my thanks to so many people for bringing this book into the world. First and foremost, my dad who stood up with me thorough this difficult time. To numerous folks at Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Puebla who helped me bring this little world of mine to life: Daniel Savedra, Anabel Barreda, Álvaro Argaiz. To everyone at the school of Architecture, Art & Design, whose feedback was invaluable to my design process. I thank them for their unparalleled knowledge of their respective areas and for sharing their expertise: Angel Morúa, Alejandra Rubio, Omar Espinosa de los Monteros and Fernando Curiel. A special thank you to Miguel Torres for being a guidepost in the immense world of concept art and graphic design. To my mum and dad, for knowing when I needed to eat when I get lost in my world. For just being there and being endlessly supportive. To my aunt and grandma for constantly checking up on me even when I went days without replying. To my friends for cheering me on and being a constant source of light (looking at you Mariana Cabrera). And finally, to Hans Zimmer and French Kiwi Juice for providing soundtracks that helped me power through.

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36 | THE NARRATIVE OF ARCHITECTURE: TALES OF AN UTOPIA | FRANCISCO LABASTIDA

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