For All The Cows | Architecture et Décroissance

What if the very idea of growth—accumulating riches, destroying the environment and worsening social inequality—is a trap? Maybe we need to aim to create a society that is based on quality not quantity, on cooperation and not competition.

Serge Latouche And finally the economical smash came to make the world better.

We can clearly see that ecological issue is not a side problem of the system or something we should try to cope with if we are good persons. Latest economical events confirm that we assist to a global breakdown of the whole model. On the other side, technological development and web communication revolution are building a radically new system of thinking, based on participation and collective intelligence.

While this cultural revolution is growing and changing the way we approach to the world and problems solving, we observe that in architecture, sustainability and ecological growth concepts are still used as ridiculous publicity spots to keep going on with the present system based on money. We believe that architecture is not anymore about form and/or/.../ function, but that it is about relations. The development of network systems shows us that the power resides in links and connections.

Architecture cannot solve the contemporary enigma without creating relations with environment and between people. The figure of architect has to deal with spaces, society, energy, internet, and politics.

We aim to create a new model for society and not just a building.

Our project is about economic decrease.

We imagine the growth of interconnected social spaces and a completely transparent model of energy and production. Raised housing units are pixilated in order to create a shared landscape that alternates private and public places; this is a base which will create a collaborative and social entourage. Ground level is free from construction and dedicated to cow graze and cultivation.

From the bottom to the sky, the succession of relational function is (-1) commerce /// (0) landscape and food production /// (2) housing /// (3) social public places and /// (4) energy collect.

We are proposing a decentralized mode of living that group together production and consume. This is to promote a transparent hyperlocalized society and culture, where inhabitants can develop a public consciousness about their life cost in term of product waste and energy consumption.