Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court Here feel we but the penalty of Adam The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind, Which, when it bites and blow upon my body, Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say ‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors that feelingly persuade me what I am’.
(II. i. 3-17)
Fantasies of an Alternate Future: Nineveh, A City of New Tomorrow and Sciences Dissertation in Architectural Studies Newcastle University Written by Octorino Tjandra
Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. (II. i. 3-17)
Octorino Tjandra, 140007006
Newcastle University, 2016 ___ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the BA Architecture Honours degree.
Acknowledgments ___ Immeasurable gratitude and debt for the valuable provision, guidance, knowledge and support of Prof. Rachel Armstrong
Content. ___ Fantasies of An Alternate Future: Nineveh, A City of New Tomorrow and Sciences
Introduction
I
Simplifying Society Towards Destruction Society of Technology Consumptive Attitude of Living
II
Fantasies of an Alternate Future The Perfect Shape Mistakes of the Past and the Mistakes of the Future A World Born Out of Alternate Science
III
Tomorrow’s World Futuristic Primitivism, an Introduction to Playing God Nineveh The Grand Order
IV
Et tu, Brute? Questions of Ethicality Conclusion: A Utopian’s Dystopia List of Figures Appendices Bibliography
Abstract. ___ This Earth of Mankind Humanity’s continual search for perfection to accomplish their ideal convenience has instinctively moulded the society’s mind-set and perception, as it progresses from era to era. Through technology and science, vast range of inventions were made as an apparatus to simplify our routines in the most comfortable way possible. New substances and matters were unearthed then modified which evidently results in the creations of new materiality. Technology and civilisations run in complete synchronisation as they perform as each other’s embodiment, thus forming the tangible physical monument of their society. Architecture’s bond to technology emphasises the importance of controlling the direction of technological progress, in order to avoid series of unwanted consequences. This dissertation initially focuses on criticising the state of modern society, as to how our societal progress largely contributes to the decay of nature and further challenges the significance of nearly irreversible damage. The invention of non-biodegradable materials such as plastic could arguably be recognised as the invention of an accident. Mankind’s lavishness and abuse of that luxury rises the questions of ethicality. By emphasising the importance in incorporating humanities and ethics in technology, which also directly correlates to architecture, the problems escalated by the lack of public consensus and political will could be exposed. Furthermore, the idea on aesthetical perfection shifts with the society’s knowledge of nature as mechanical and artistic capabilities correspond to technology. This paper aims to extensively investigate this fundamental belief through inquiring how capable is artificial perfection in performing against the natural. Extraction of virgin materials strips off a large sum of its original properties, for instance, processed timber could not retain its unique traits of photosynthesis. If a technology that could preserve each unique materialistic trait and properties exists, the ability to artificially create flesh, fur or trees could not only solve architectural issues, but also environmental, medical and world hunger issues. A design of fictional post-apocalyptic, utopian city named Nineveh was created to extensively discuss the feasible outcome and psychological impact of this idealistic science in a hyperbolic manner. City of Nineveh is fundamentally inspired and precedented by utopian poetries, literatures and novels where nature and science has merged to create a society which survives cultivating nature. The city allows an alternative reality to exist, where another form of architectural constructions and materials could be erected from biological materials. The purpose of this approach is to challenge the present belief against the possible products of modern science and their consequences. With the possession of such powerful technology which could manipulate the ecosystem and natural order at will, this chapter intends to measure the ethicality of this knowledge. By simultaneously comparing the exaggerations within the fictional world to existing technologies, the dissertation finally concludes with openended justification to the rightfulness of this potentially catastrophic technology.
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Introduction. Visions. Pessimism. Living Architecture. Societal Impact.
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0.1 | Plan Voisin, Le Corbusier
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A Mute’s Soliloquy The visions of the future have the tendency to be gravitated towards its society’s culture and technology. A suitable case would be the architects in the era of modernism who races to produce propagandistic imagery with the prideful intent to spread the value of their idealistic social order.1 Well-known futurists such as Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright communicates their vision of ideal cities through their design of Plan Voisin and Broadacre City, respectively. The grand proposals from the futurists, although driven by the quote “architecture is breaking free from tradition”, were still stemming from the industrial and post-war technologies. Despite their attempt to bridge the norms, architecture is yet unable to escape their role as a monument of the culture that made them.2 An architecture’s bond to culture, history and technology forces them to submit to society, even if it progresses to a utopian world.
1 | James Bartolacci, Rewind: Modernist Dreams of Utopian Architecture, Available at: http:// architizer.com/blog/modernist-utopian-architecture/ [Accessed on 24 January 2017] 2 | Adam Sharr, Reading Architecture and Culture: Researching Buildings, Spaces and Documents, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, Inc., 2012, p.3 3 | Peter Sale, Our Dying Planet, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011, p. 3 4 | Amy Maxmen, Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World, Available at: https://www.wired.
Machineries and cyber technology has always been a large contributor towards modern progress. Philosophers and dystopian theorists of the past had even predicted the decay of our world caused by our thirst for wealth and luxury. Dystopian writers of the past like Oswald Spengler and Sir Francis Bacon blatantly stresses the problems of the general society through the pessimism of their prophecies. These authors permitted their era’s progression with a subtle warning on the necessity of scientific advancement to consume the natural, accompanied by their personal depiction of societies unspoilt by common civilisation. Measures to decelerate environmental degradation has been taken for centuries and yet still mankind desires the life of extravagance, without realising the cost of that luxury includes rapid depletion of global resources.3 Although the knowledge to genetically engineers biological creatures has started to popularise4, the lack of appreciation towards natural supplementary qualities is still widely present in general population. The body of living organisms possesses incomparable materialistic qualities that could competitively functions alongside the materials that we have artificially invented. To illustrate this perception, skinning and attaching the bark of a tree onto a wall would not retain its biological properties it once had and only the aesthetics of the bark remains. If living trees can be accurately deformed or artificially created, structures would able to photosynthesise and serve as an extension of nature, which could eventually terminate the need for environmental extraction. The technology could equip the humankind with the capability of creating a haven that does not destroy but instead, form and rejuvenate the environment. Humanity could then become capable in envisioning a future where the populations could stand in the middle of a city and be surrounded by treehouses, not concrete mass.
com/2015/07/crispr-dna-editing-2/ [Accessed 19 January 2017]
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This new materiality would revolutionise the architectural field along with medical and culinary field. Creation of other organic materials, namely fur, hair or flesh could replace the previously irreversible damages in or on the body of living organisms. Functioning biological materials will push the frontiers of humanity and redefines what it means to be human. This possible future where biological materials can be manufactured, instead of grown, and used in large scale projects would affect the study of human psychology in architecture. Materials that were formerly only possessed by living beings are now treated as construction materials., and thus a discussion concerning the present environmental issues and these visualisations will be explored in subsequent chapters.
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Chapter I: Simplifying Society Towards Destruction. Unintended Consequences. Inventing an Accident. Humanities in Technology. Lavishness. Victims of an Ignorant World.
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1.1 | Inner Mongolian Steel Factory
___ Society of Technology The constant and ceaseless development of science has carried humanity into unperceivable extends, while directly influencing our culture and lifestyle. Through it, humanity applies their advances on scientific knowledge on useful arts, which is what we now address it as technology.5 Our adaptive nature demands us to live in parallel with the state of technology in that era, especially if they compromise simplified and efficient routines. This simplification provides our society with comfortability that allows us to solve greater issues of the present to accelerate the civilisation progress. Rapid improvement of technology gradually transforms the way we live, from riding horsebacks to motor cars, bonfires to kitchen stoves. Society has indeed endured a radical change that equips the general society with greater intelligence over time. This addresses the society to new, extensive challenges of greater complexity which would eventually triggers innovations. Our capability of converting massive energy generated by combustion engine into rotary motion is undeniably a solution of time efficiency and distance, but this convenience comes on a consequence of the engine’s immense thirst for natural resources.6 The consumptive nature of a technological breakthrough, however, is not only contained by this particular example. Humanity’s illusory mission on the search of perfection in order to create our own, ideal utopia, has lead our science into discovering our true capability on creating new matters at molecular level. Despite fully understanding the concept of “nothing is perfect”, we still seek the answer to achieving physical perfection. The outcome of this philosophy invents the term “technological pessimism” as quoted by Leo Marx where we understand our incapability of designing flawless technology to grant space for progress.7 The persistence of general society’s lack of understanding would conclusively call for environmental cataclysm, as coined by Robert K. Merton as unintended consequences.8
5 | Jacob Bigelow, The Useful Arts Considered with the Application of Science, Vol I, 1840 6 | Jonathan Swayday, Fantasies of the end of technology, The Humanities in Architectural Design, Oxon: Routledge, 2010, p. 58 7 |Ibid, p. 61. 8 |Robert K. Merton, The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action, American Sociological Review, 1936, p. 894
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Kevin McElvaney for WIRED, Consequences of Technological Waste
1.2 | Wellu Seregious, 33
1.3 | Baba Salifu, 15
1.4 | Kwabena Labobe, 10
1.5 | Abdul Salam, 18
1.6 | John Mahama, 21
1.7 | Adjoa, 9
1.9 | Adam Latif, 21
1.10 | Adams Alhassan, 19
1.11 | Mogamed Camara, 20
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As an example, the invention of plastic on itself is a scientific breakthrough that significantly impacts modern day lifestyle. By innovatively utilising this technology, we have successfully reduces the difficulty on our daily tasks and chores with the use of plastic bags, water bottle, plastic cups, etc. Due the disposability and lightness of these products, the increase in population impacts the amount of plastic production. The desirability of the product completely outweighs the already low public awareness towards the non-biodegradable disadvantage of plastic. As what the aforementioned circumstances show, the lack of awareness is dangerously amplified on developing or third world countries due to the lack of public consensus and political will. The inability of these governments and their people to compete with present technology worsens the negativity produced. Despite the unfortunate complications that these illustrations have introduced, it is important to expect unforeseen circumstances to occur along with invention of objects as what Paul Virilio mentioned as “To invent the sailing ship or the steamer is to invent the shipwreck. To invent the train is to invent the train accident of derailment.”9 Whilst agreeing on the Virilio’s statement, it is hard to aimless follow his statement due to the today’s problem on the abuse of consumption on natural resources. The comfortability that accompanies technology is directly proportional to the society’s reliance to it which eventually provokes the egoistic human nature and further leads to exploitation of natural resources. Complexity of technology develops along the shift in its understanding10, when new technologies typically exists as a form of improvisation of an existing technology. Human reliance on new technologies has become greater as the capability of a device is now able to accommodate numerous major functions, which used to operate individually in the past. Within this scope, the survival of a technology does not entirely dependent on its function but its capability of satisfying the general market in terms of accessibility, convenience, facility, ease, comfort or even as much as luxury.11 This trend on remodifying the existent and replacing it with a newer entity that we deemed more suitable, might not, in reality, be the answer to the question we have been asking. To blindly criticise our technological development is a form of ignorance and hypocrisy itself, as technology without humanity is a meaningless innovation12 which is the direction of current technological development is heading by striping down their original values.
9 | Paul Virilio, The Original Accident, Cambridge: Polity, 2007, p. 10 10 | Jonathan Swayday, Fantasies of the end of technology, The Humanities in Architectural Design, Oxon: Routledge, 2010, p. 60 11 |Ibid. 12 |Ciriaco Morón Arroyo, The Humanities in the Age of Technology, Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2002, Backcover.
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Consumptive Attitude of Living Involvement of artificially-created materials are intended to fulfil the psychological demand to simplify and ease our routines. By taking a compound and mixing it with another or altering its properties, we managed to create these glorified materials that were not designed to independently exist in nature at the expense of non-biodegradability or toxins. As this stage has been reached, it is safe to assume that humanity is no longer living along with nature but against it. This point is made even clearer as we incautiously extract virgin materials from earth to construct our own tailored paradise without fully understanding possible outcomes. From the following perspective, we see ourselves as a triumphant species which are able to dominate the surface by mold nearly one half of land surface to our own free will.13 As costless as this by-products of nature may seem, there exist an indirect price to pay which will only be collected after a point of accumulation. Humanity’s coexistence is by far at the generosity of the planet due our incompetence and loss on understanding how to exist. Our arrogance on human intelligence could be the key to our own annihilation by either technology or nature. The accessibility of this bastardised materials are becoming increasingly simpler which progressively escalates the supply and demand. This grants the public a valuable voice and monetary control as companies’ strife to fulfil their lavish interests at the lowest cost. Perhaps the economic impact is a form of treat from the major point of view, but this also means we are indirectly encouraging the manufacturing of environmentally harmful products. Our incapability to perfectly disposes this product outbalances the purpose of its creation and introduces a morality question on offering a “solution” at the cost of another. It appears that humanity has mixed up their selfishness with intolerable ignorance and egoism to boycott their generous gift of conscience.
13 | Vitousek et al., Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystem, Science Vol .277,1997, p.494-499 14 | Peter Sale, Our Dying Planet, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011, p. 273
These complications further intensified in developing countries due to public unawareness caused by poverty and lack of education. It has been an arduous journey on expecting the citizens of these countries (especially elderlies and rural inhabitants) to adapt to a lifestyle of science and technology. Scarcity of mind-sets who are aware of world’s problem of overpopulation in those countries has also causes the demand in energy consumption to increase continuously.14 The harshness of life by poverty in those countries is indirectly demanding to consume resources at an irreplaceable rate. As developed countries are now at the stage of innovation and invention, developing countries are starting to aim on establishing great cities which perpetually contributes to Greenhouse Gas emission, waste product and depletion of natural resources due to the future increase in density.
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Just as hygiene is not only revolved on aesthetics, the problems that waste products carry also affects our ecosystem. The deficiency of a specific food supply due to reasons such as deforestation and poaching will cause the culling of a certain species of flora and fauna. In this Holocene period, only a handful are thoroughly aware on the event of Holocene Extinction which is now travelling at the fastest rate in the planet’s history.15 The seriousness of this issue are practically invisible at the time until the cumulative effect started to exhibit natural disorders. Humanity’s general awareness of this problem has actually provided us with possible answers to reduce the depletion rate as we are now able to replace fossil fuels or by utilising natural energy resource (solar, wind and water). 16 Our further efforts includes LEED certification of building standards, railway transportation instead of trucks and population control but our main inadequacy is global awareness and determination. By using the deceitful privileges granted by technologies, with either an environmental awareness or not, society is directly contributing to the demolition of our ecosystem. Present day education is constantly reminding younger generations of the danger whilst they are ironically forced to live in an environment that demands them to live in that manner. These victims of an ignorant world were born only to cling onto something that their world has deemed wrong.
1.12-15 (Clockwise) | The Dodo, Quagga, Thycaline’s subsequent extinction indicates the start of Holocene Extinction.
15 | Ibid 16 | Ibid
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Chapter II: Fantasies of an Alternate Future. Dream and Luxury. Perfect Sphere. Phase or Establishment. Theology and Technology.
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___ The Perfect Shape Our history of living is tied to the world of science and geometry, where architecture as a discipline is defined by technical capabilities which simultaneously runs in parallel with our knowledge of science.17 This universal culture is a shape or an embodiment of our attempt or creating the ideal world, where science is seen as the ultimate representation of the truth and reality. The fruit of this attempt has granted us worldwide convenience through genius inventions that the people of the past had only dreamt of. The dream of soaring freely in the sky, costless and instant communication or easiness of travel allows our society to progressively establish a world without distance. However, can living in this fantasy of technology be counted as an open-ended advance, as coined by Oswald Splenger in The Decline of the West, whereas humanity has finally undressed its primitive past for a glorious and extensive future?18 Humanity’s understanding towards nature and its properties allows the deconstruction of matter to assist us in satisfying our curiosity through countless inventions. As said by Hans Georg Gadamer, the direction that humanity is heading is towards the separation of two worlds of the linguistic and empirical science, where the two may often overlap.19 If biology and nature is a designed existence, that would mean that our attempt in science and technology is merely a toying act on microcosm within the larger macrocosm. 17 | Dalibor Vesely, Architecture
The pleasure of invention and advancement has been carrying our society forward through eras, alongside our obsession to art and wealth. Modern day architecture is shaped by our current stage of technology, but does the creation of a perfect, artificial microcosm more superior than the existence of the untouched? Is the world’s roundest sphere or smoothest surface superior to the existence of an existing matter such as flesh or tree barks? Human intellect stands only as a portion of the universal intellect20 as coined by John Hendrix from his understanding of Aquinas Thomas. Our everexpanding abilities and knowledge widens the variety of materials we are able to create and with this we have erected great architecture and world history.
as a Humanistic Discipline, The Humanities in Architecture Design, Oxon: Routledge, 2010, p. 193 18 | Oswald Spengler, Volume 1: Form and Actuality (Translated by Arthur Helps), The Decline of The West, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1936 19 | Hanz Georg Gadamer, Poetry and History, Hanz Georg Gadamer on Education, New York: State University of New York Press, 1992, p. 212 20 | John Hendrix, Neoplatonism at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, The Humanities in Architecture Design, Oxon: Routledge, 2010, p.164-165
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Mistakes of the Past and the Mistakes of the Future The universal acceptance of world history as an educational source has established mankind a safe point of no return, where we are learning from preceding mistakes and brilliance in order to establish a canvas for our progressing society. Nevertheless, to what extent does the world history that we have been learning of has eliminated the ugliness from the grand traits?21 By setting our establishment on a canvas with an unknown entirety, how much fragments of the absent faultiness still lingers within our society? Living in the era shaped by previous hypothesis, it rose to a question whether this era is a form of an open-ended establishment or merely a phase.22 In agreement with Splenger, he also states his rejection towards the future made by the west as an advancement, but instead considering cultures experience its history as seasons. This western era of “winter” might just be an after phase of our “autumn” past which happens to start the current civilisation phase of mega-cities, wealth and nihilism.
2.1-2 | Spengler compares Hitler’s dictatorship to Caessarism.
21 | Oswald Spengler, Volume 1: Form and Actuality (Translated by
General society’s uncontrollable greed has managed to deteriorate our own habitat at acceleration, alongside technological advancement. Is the depletion of valuable resources necessary and worthy to be sacrificed to satisfy our temporary needs? This large portion of artificial world consisting of towering architecture that diminishes the natural with its arrogance might not even designed to last, in functionality or existence, through the upcoming eras. A summarisation of humanity’s latest concern was mentioned by Spengler in his book, Man & Technics (1931):
“All things organic are dying in the grip of organisation. An artificial world is permeating and poisoning the natural …. Civilisation itself has become a machine that does, or tries to do, everything in mechanical fashion.” 23
Arthur Helps), The Decline of The West, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1936 22 | Ibid. 23 | Oswald Spengler, Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life, (1931, reprint), Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific, 2002, p.94 24 | Oswald Spengler, Table 1: Contemporary Spiritual Epochs, The Decline of The West, Translated by Arthur Helps, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1936,
The irony on the depletion of humanity’s future by spending it with their own life span is multiplied by taking into account the impermanence of the comfortability it purchases. The reliance of our lifestyle on technology will eventually called for a catastrophic outcome whereas this “Faustian Civilisation”, as called by Spengler, is sentenced to dissolution and decay that will be left as forgotten fragments. The dystopia that was prophesised by him has been hauntingly fulfilled in stages of megapolitan civilisation, extinction of spiritual existence and metaphysics and problematic society. Perhaps, the awaiting season will repeat in the form of a recurring long age of metaphysics, architecture, arts and mathematics under Caesarism.24
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A World Born Out of Alternate Science
Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court Here feel we but the penalty of Adam The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind, Which, when it bites and blow upon may body, Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say ‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors that feelingly persuade me what I am’. Duke Senior (II. i. 3-11)25
A plant’s freedom and honesty are bound to their servitude towards the earth, whereas a living being’s has a separated servitude and freedom that grants them the ability to choose.26 And yet, the richness of our knowledge and the criticism towards the present society cannot be compared to the purer existence and freedom of the forest. The innocence of the untouched allows themselves to be utilised for the greater good of the conscious. Questions of morality are only brought up when the abuse of this noble deed has become uncontrollable. Mankind’s strong obsession towards religion, arts and science, however, might not the key but gap to understanding the existence of these passive entities. For instance, general society views natural theology as a portion of knowledge that is virtually obtainable through the analysation of God’s creation.27 This ideology itself has already provided a blank canvas for our long period of extensive exploration, with science as our apparatus to fulfil this great desire to understand. This great research has already been started ever since the early existence of our ability to think and live, that cancels the possibility of mankind’s acceptance for a future where we co-exist with our environment and the elements. Science and philosophy ties up our understanding of nature as a subject to the compliance of man28, or as beings full of answers in riddles. It is only natural for humankind to prioritise their survival before others, and yet the reparative efforts are still insufficient to provide a counter-weight to this rapid depletion. Perhaps If the animate attempts to understand the thin line that separates the sentient and the rooted, we might have unlocked the gate to an idealistic utopia that might satisfy both parties where primitivism could be visualised as an alternative future
25 | William Shakespeare, The Complete works, Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (eds.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988, p. 634. 26 | Oswald Spengler, Volume 1: Form and Actuality (Translated by Arthur Helps), The Decline of The West, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1936 27 | Stephen A. McKnight, “Francis Bacon’s God”, The New Atlantis, Available at: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/francis-bacons-god. [Accessed on 2 January 2017] 28 | Ibid.
Chapter III: Tomorrow’s World. Alternative. End of Nihilism. Compliance. Post-Babel. Meta-Feudalism. Eastern Science. Choreographing Nature.
Welcome to Nineveh.
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Futuristic Primitivism, an Introduction to Playing God.
Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. Duke Senior (II. i. 12-17)29
29 | William Shakespeare, Duke Senior, The Complete works, Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (eds.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988, p. 634. 30 | Kurzgesagt (2016), Genetic Modification Will Change Engineering Forever, Youtube, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAhjPd4uNFY&ab_channel=Kurzgesagt%E2%80%93InaNutshell [Accessed on 10 January 2017] 31 | Dalibor Vesely, Architecture as a Humanistic Discipline, The Humanities in Architecture Design, Oxon: Routledge, 2010, p. 197 32 | Genome News Network, Genetics and Genomics Timeline, Available at: http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/timeline/1977_Gilbert.php [Accessed on 23 December 2017] 33 | Heidi Ledford, CRISPR: gene editing is just the beginning, Available at: http://www.nature.com/ news/crispr-gene-editing-is-just-thebeginning-1.19510 [Accessed on 10 January 2017]
The current era’s computerisation and its prosperity had not been more than a vision in the 1980’s.30 Despite all of its absurdity, the scientific fiction has indeed happened in a gradual transition with minimum realisation. The change in our routines highlights that we are living in the utopia of the past. Architecture prospers as how technology prospers31, the direct proportion decorates our planet with great monuments, from domes to abundant skyscrapers. It is fascinating how biological manipulation and engineering stands on similar grounds today as computerisation in the past. Attempts on biological modification is not merely modern fashion, since its history is known to exist from selective breeding and species domestication. Whether it’s for consumption or adoption, our race has long attempted to gain the compliance of other organisms. The boundaries of our understanding are pushed by discovering DNA and its mechanisms and further, granting us the power to alter DNA for cures, foods or energy.32 For instance, humanity’s ticket to the eradication of our nemesis such as malaria or dengue is introduced by CRISPR project that lies on genetic alteration of the vessel.33 The same technology also promises gene alteration to create designer babies. Although the aforementioned seems to carry more radical transformations and solutions to world problems, the ecological damage caused by other simultaneous researches may bring disaster even faster than its rate of benefits. Even if we do eliminate these parasite taxis, gene editing is barely a matured technology whose immaturity might cause us unwanted consequences. Our outward attempts at channelling this knowledge for good might not reach its zenith because of the outcome of its own nature.
Perhaps, the unorthodox step is to bring this infant technology along with our surrender to mother nature. In compliance to her rules and standards, we unquestionably abandon the majority of our long-established exploration and bluntly retry again with genetic engineering knowledge as a basis. However, by obeying and selfishly editing out the discomfort it carries, are not we repeating our forefathers’ mistakes once more? In this technological babel, where we live as modern cavemen, the separating border between nature and our existence has been bridged. This bridge brings our society to a world considered as futuristic primitivism where we live in refined manmade caves and modern tools, questioning the meaning of our existence. Our gift of conscience would die out of dullness from fearing progress. To think in this blatant manner is to assume our pinnacle is never to be reached, which raises a question regarding the necessity of this ungrounded paranoia. The next sub-chapter would unveil this possibility, not as a direct answer, through the design of a civilisation where the society’s state envelops many aspects of our idea of perfectness and idealism.
3.1 | Z3 Computer by Konrad Zuse. The First Relay Computer.
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___ The Cherub. The Night. The Whale. The Pharisees. Humanity’s Ark. Kingdom on Ashes. Tree of Life. Superstition. Torture. False Northern Star. ___
3.2 | Ark of Nineveh
This artwork has been rescaled, an unscaled reprint is provided within the Appendices.
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Nineveh Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 17
Jonah 1:1734
Ark of Nineveh is a design of a new society presented as a story of an established kingdom named Nineveh, founded in the aftermath of catastrophe. The kingdom’s initial construction began during the recovery in the gradually stabilising timeline and ecosystem, equipped with a strong theological foundation and aspiration for the development of humane, organic sciences. As Nineveh’s recovering from the environmentally chaos, nature began to reclaim the surface and cover the industrial wasteland left by the war. It is a place where citizens entrust the kingdom’s future to a reigning leader while they focus on reshaping the society upon theology, new philosophy, political judgement and technology. Ninevites are no longer a society of freedom and equality, as it has already been achieved, but a society of idealists whose survival solely resorts on optimism and hope. Residing on the King’s promises to unearth and reform the lost society, they proudly believe on the direct intervention of God upon mankind’s survival through the King’s wisdom. By adopting this new wisdom, the citizens strive to create new, ecologically harmless technologies that mimics the materiality of organic matters and creatures to repent and fix their forefathers’ mistakes. Ark of Nineveh, a story inspired by Lowell Hess’s interpretation of Bensalem35, stands as an attempt on describing a Utopian future, in which, the majority of modern day society has collapsed through a series of war and self-induced cataclysm. This reality of Spengler’s expected downfall of present-day’s technological Babel has finally taken into place. Society’s strong interest and jealousy has been overtaken by greed and self-righteousness which entails the elimination of humanity’s benevolence. Malevolence envelops the global society, their advancement of technology equips the political giants with wealth and power, leading to the misuse of their grand discoveries. Scarcity calls for great wars, construction calls for depletion and eventually, the earth demands justice by releasing a “flood” as the unintended consequence.
34 | Jonah 1:17, New International Version 35 | Lowell Hess, in Edward A. Hamilton, Graphic Design for the Computer Age: Visual Communication for All Media (Van Nostrand Reinhold), 1970 36 | Jonah 1 & 2 37 | Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926, p. 396.
The metaphorical design based upon the biblical story of Nineveh, where a city filled with wickedness had finally came into repentance through God’s direct intervention through Jonas and the Whale.36 The ark of Nineveh shelters survivors and the remains from our dissolution to repopulate and reshape the current world through new arts, philosophy, technology and theology. The end of our current Faustian civilisation calls for a new governance37 where theocracy is practised. In the drawing, the Cherub symbolises the belief that guidance has been sent from their deity and his wisdom (through the Cherub’s feathers) shall be grasped as the foundation of Nineveh. The leader of Nineveh and the general populace openly trusts and respect their deity and his creations, hence enthusiastically attempts and managed to understand his creations. Majority of the population believes in the beauty of natural genuineness and its imperfection. The general
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3.3 | The New Atlantis, Sir Francis Bacon (Illustrated by Lowell Hess) Uncropped illustration is provided within the Appendices.
populace all stand in agreement to stand equal to natural laws, without total submission nor domination. Since then, Nineveh citizens endures a gradual change of philosophy and ideology over a developmental period of newly discovered belief, sciences and technology as they called Matured Science. This frees them from the toxic thoughts of surrendering themselves as another subject of feudalism.
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Matured Science mimics the original properties of organic materials and creatures, utilises this knowledge to finally turn the Idea into reality and give it a physical form. Accepting a shift in technology from the preceding era is difficult but through time, they begin to understand the attractiveness in nature’s imperfection and moderates their idealistic nature in designing objects. The Idea is a Neoplatonic idea by Plotinus, whom believes that true form only exists in the designer’s eyes and the artificer simply participates in his craft.38 By maturing each individuals’ thinking and expectations, shaping them to suit Nineveh’s ideology and eliminating scientific limitations, the gap which prevents our present day society in creating the Idea could be removed and grants the citizens of Nineveh the flexibility to create. This hence rewards the citizens with the open access to equality, freedom and voice.
“Western Man is a proud but tragic figure because, while he strives and creates, he secretly knows the actual goal will never be reached.” 39
38 | Translated in Plotinus, The Six Enneads, (Stephen MacKenna and B.S Page trans), Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Brittanica, Inc., 1952, p.52 39 | Oswald Spengler, Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life, (1931, reprint), Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific, 2002, p. 54 40 | William Shakespeare, The Complete works, Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (eds.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988, p. 634.
A gap of belief in between our society and Nineveh’s is generated by the distinctive ability to realise the potential consequences of one’s action. The sensitivity possessed by Ninevites, which was granted after the flood, allows them to process conflicts differently and produce unthinkable solutions. By managing to mine the remnants of previous technology, the Ninevites has managed to connect to those memories before time consumes them. Their study of nature embodies those of Shakespeare’s envisions in Duke Senior (page 17) where he said, “And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”40 In the appreciation of the world and God’s entrustment to them, their science takes shape of them, to the point that their resemblance has succeeded in blurring the line that separates the artificial and the natural. Matured Science gave the kingdom a new impetus to discoveries where woods are no longer grown and harvested but created, flesh does not heal but given and animals’ prosperity through culturing meat. The long lost humanity has been regained as prospering cities are erected through distinctive architecture and cultural fashion.
Central Bankers
Corporate Elites
Elected Officials & Bureaucrats Ordinary Citizens
Monarch/Founder
Nobles/City Shapers and Contributors
Knight/Peacekeepers
Servants/Builders
3.4 | Ninevete Feudalism. Today’s Corporate Feudalistic world, although subtle, is largely controlled by the central bankers and corporate giants. Nineveh re-incorporates humanity’s long history of feudalism.
___ Editing Nature Leisure and Pleasure Society of New Technology ___
3.5 | Nineveh’s Aquarium
___
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The Grand Order Citizens of Nineveh believes that their survival is a generous act of salvation. Their society has taken into shaped not only by formation, but also creation and design of their king and deity. The moral guidance provided by the king, comes from the dominating obsession of conquering nature, rather than conquering men. The kingdom’s governance is largely managed by great thinkers and philosophers as politicians. Those who are capable visionaries are now rewarded with respect and authority, in return for their noble service to the kingdom. Thinkers, along with their dreamily intellectual self, has finally managed to turn their imagination into reality, by erecting a pre-designed the society to minimise upcoming worldly affairs. Their bravery to express philosophy has rewarded them with a tangible reality where utopia is no longer an aspiration but a destination and not a state of mind but a state of government.41 Humanity is no longer divided into nations, or counterparts (east or west) but operates as a single, collective nation. Nineveh’s feudalistic society is designed for social status not as a display of authority to divide roles in rebuilding the society. The programme relies on its system of education which follows the general populace’s philosophic ideas on what the younger generations should be taught and for what purposes. Its reliance to philosophy roots back to the present society as a philosopher once said that mankind’s existence is bound to curiosity and knowledge42 and thus, we always prosper through philosophy. Difference is only made when there is a disagreement in fundamental beliefs carried by two populations, for instance, democratic and non-democratic societies are differed by their contrasting viewpoints on freedom of choice.43 In this manner, Nineveh prospers as a product of equality and freedom, and also the rejection of nihilism through executing non-democratic acts in total understanding and trust to establish their own democracy. Religion blossoms as democracy grows and superstitions arise, the citizens desperately seek for assurances from theology after their disappointments of technology.
41 | Johannes Bryce, If We Reach Utopia Will We Know It?, Quora, Available at: https://www.quora. com/If-we-reach-utopia-will-weknow-it [Accessed on 9 January 2017] 42 | Aristotle, Metaphysics, William David Ross Translation, 1952 43 | Ananta Sukla, Fiction and Art: Exploration in Contemporary
Original drawings of 3.5-7 are provided within the Appendices.
Theory, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015
___ Restoration of Lost Histories Multi-Sensory Living Architecture Architects as Environmentalist ___
3.6 | Architecture of Tomorrow
_ 28 Down at the end of a winding path Is a group of evergreen trees? Pine and hemlock, and spruce and fir, With their resinous fragrances; And truest picture of calm content That mortal ever saw... My Air-Castle44
Architects serves as world designers that mark humanity’s existence not only through large monuments but also through books, literature and philosophy. Our current civilisation seems able to understand this preliminary perspective together with the understanding of it being a humanistic discipline, instead of technical.45 Ninevite architects, together with today’s architects, believes the core of architecture lies in creating the most ideal environment for our existence and co-existence with history and nature. Vesely also believes that the practice of this ancient belief is not bound to skills, techniques nor technologies but the competence to adapt to it. What draws the border, is the Ninevites’ trauma that had caused them to take this belief to a greater extent. In My Air-Castle poem by Elizabeth Allen, she describes the calamity of the forest as the most honest and pure. This purity is what inspires Nineveh’s architecture and further supported by their technology. Architecture of today seems to endure the separation of science and the humanities inflicted by present technology and their subject.46 However, through uniting architecture and philosophy under a single association (in the drawing, the Tower of Rose), a designer’s role is not only bound to study forms but also the fluid nature of philosophy. This allows Ninevite architects to tailor the form, façade and aesthetical appeal of the kingdom to its urban wasteland context, based on a strong understanding of the cost. Demands of society are considered with adding their idealistic visualisation which is resulting an idyllic, carefree environment for its inhabitants. 44 | Elizabeth Anne Chase Akers Allen, My Air–Castle, The Sunset– song and Other Verses, 1902 45 | Dalibor Vesely, Architecture as a Humanistic Discipline, The Humanities in Architecture Design, Oxon: Routledge, 2010, p. 197 46 | Ibid. p.193
I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.
Trees47
47 | Joyce Kilmer, Trees and Other Poems, New York: Doubleday Doran and Co., 1914, 18. 48 | Leslie Kavanaugh (2010), The Architect as Humanist, The Humanities in Architecture Design, Oxon: Routledge, p. 197 49 | Heidi Ledford, CRISPR: gene editing is just the beginning, Nature, Available at: http://www.nature.com/news/crispr-geneediting-is-just-the-beginning-1.19510 [Accessed on 10 January 2017] 50 | Kurzgesagt (2016), Genetic Modification Will Change Engineering Forever, Youtube, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jAhjPd4uNFY&ab_channel=Kurzgesagt%E2%80%93InaNutshell [Accessed on 10 January 2017] 51 | Michal Addady, You Could Be Eating Lab-Grown Meat in Just Five Years, Fortune, Available at: http://fortune.com/2016/02/02/ lab-grown-memphis-meats/ [Accessed on: 12 January 2017]
Nature is now a choreographed system, given by their deity to be studied and altered. By culturing these organic materials, questions of ethicality to us as animals that reasons48, have been dismissed. Citizens of Nineveh lives in a world where the artificial and the natural has finally merged into a seemingly stable substance. Houses are capable to be grown and takes shape of a tree, walls clothed in materials such as artificial fur, feather or flesh with regenerative ability. Materials are no longer farmed but created for ethical and ecological reasons. In this way, today’s problem regarding carbon Buildings are the sub-product of the Mother Tree (refer to Ark of Nineveh), the symbol of nature as an aspiration and source of life. Appropriateness of architectural design is biased to nature rather than human comfort. The need for ornaments and architectural detailing has been diminished as natural imperfection is considered as perfection, the irregularity and disproportion of shape are now the new fashion. Architecture does not only exist as monuments but a definition of their way of life. Citizens can be their own builder and architects of their home, but they are strictly instructed to only build when required. Overpopulation of buildings is solved by incorporating complete biodegradability; leaving them untended to grow back into nature or to decay and be consumed by the ecosystem. Nineveh consumes what their technology has produced and produces what it consumes. With the possession of nature editing knowledge, humanity greatly excels in medical and culinary. The combat against diseases are no longer gravitated towards antidotes, but similar to what today’s CRISPR technology has promised, reconstruction of the origin.49 Parasite-carrying organisms are genetically altered or simply culled. Eventually, humans fall as a subject of their own practice with a promise to grant babies with pre-birth immunisation and enhancements. It is contradictive to present belief but through time, society changes and it would be unethical to withhold them as it could end the potential suffering of a child.49 Culinary also strives through culturing meats and vegetables to solve world hunger, flesh can be created through chemistry. The vision of creating cultured, edible meat is not foreign, even for our present society as well. It is well-known that mankind has cross-bred vegetables, fruits or animals to appear as desired. A project named Memphis Meat, has been trying to stand against animal cruelty by producing real meat from animal cells.51 The movement of reducing the need to feed, breed and slaughter animals is aimed to dispose the negative effect of meat production. Nineveh insists in the employment of this method as a form of rejection towards environmental degradation, health risks, suffering and contaminants in culinary culture. Growth comes at a cost, whether it is the responsibility it carries or the process to obtain and maintain its position. The familiarity of the Ninevites to that notion reduces the question into what price are they
willing to pay. In the end of the day, humans are bound to their thirst for knowledge. Francis Bacon theoretically criticised this bond by correlating knowledge with torture52 as to how any scientists of any age believes that nature is an entity to be vexed and tormented to the compliance of men. Although theology prospers in Nineveh, science and philosophy still needs to display their tangibility to laymen in similarity to today’s science in history. Being bound to theology is not a cure as we are beings that reasons. The dedication to the study of God’s works and creatures is a façade to their necessarily crude methods in understanding nature. Bacon also mentioned that the study of nature would only find its answers when scientists puts nature to the question and extract the answers with violence. Without realisation, their form of science is a contradiction of their own belief on the understanding of natural imperfection as perfection. Curiosity towards religious beliefs itself is undoubtedly harmless, but the unrestricted access to wander with these thoughts will eventually corrupt any science by consuming the minds of men.53
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Through despair and obliviousness, Nineveh has successfully established a utopian kingdom that rewards equality, freedom and peaceful society. Great architecture claims back its former glory, clothed in a new, finer skin. Earth is once again redecorated as a world that lives solely on agriculture, acceptance of death by nature and cultivation of the ecosystem within an urbanised context. Regardless of the charms, is Nineveh the future that our world is foreseeing or desire? Although the technological babel that we are currently building has caused significant damage, is biological science along with its dishonest nature our most desirable solution?
52 | Stephen A. McKnight, “Francis Bacon’s God,” The New Atlantis, Available at: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/francis-bacons-god. [Accessed on 10 January 2017] 53 | Ibid.
___ A City of Treehouses, Furhouses and Fleshhouses Cultured Meat Coexistence with Nature ___
3.7 | Routine
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Chapter IV: Et tu, Brute? Utopia. Technology of the Present. Unpredicted Dystopia.
___
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Questions of Ethicality The existence of a perfect city itself lies on a non-existent standard that we have invented to measure our standings. The term “Utopia” itself does not stay true to Sir Thomas More’s original definition, but only through a series of evolution it holds the present meaning of a community that envisions the perfect political and societal order.54 Aspiration for an indefinite subject might seem unconvincing, however, it is only natural for mankind to dream and follow in order to prosper. Architects themselves are aware of this yet their vision for a perfect world does not diminish. For instance, modernists architects along with the new material availability envisions cities which depicts utopian ideals in a belief where their buildings could recover the world from 20th century tragedies.55 Creation of the perfect world such as Nineveh is never by vision, but established through a long process of prosperity, sorrow and endeavour. By understanding their chase of the unchaseable, mankind manages to redirect their target towards solving the existing worldly issues and questions, whether in Nineveh or in the present world. Bound to this equation, our efforts regardless of our state of technological advancement will ultimately harvests the same product.56
4.1 | Broadacre City, Frank LLoyd Wright
54 | James Pallister, 2011, Utopias, ‘Sustainism’ and architecture: between the possible and the impossible, Available at: https:// www.architectsjournal.co.uk/ utopias-sustainism-and-architecture-
Ark of Nineveh is not solely created through visual imaginations and idealistic views, but a precedented hyperbole of modern thinking and technology. As introduced in the preceding chapter, mankind’s tendency to alter the natural, unbound by the level of knowledge, has been historically known and proven. In agricultural field as an example, our ancestors had already cultivated crops for consumption benefits by selecting best performing seeds, without the assistance of machinery nor knowledge of DNA.57 These modern-day apparatuses exist to perform such tasks in a superior that manufactures greater results with more rooms for error. Further development of the current system could eventually lead us into opening a door that cannot be closed as to how immortality breeds overpopulation, designer babies promotes pre-destination, deletion of diseases triggers extinction and knowledge devours resources.
between-the-possible-and-theimpossible/8611762.article [Accessed 12 January 2017] 55 | Ibid. 56 | Wislawa Szymborska, Utopia (Translated by S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh), A Large Number, 1976 57 | Monsato, History of Plant Breeding, Available at: http://www. monsanto.com/files/documents/ history%20of%20plant%20breeding. pdf ?v=ROBBUSB83
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Discoveries performs as a catalyst that triggers an irreversible chain of inventions that broadens and complicates with time. It is appropriate to portray this theorem through the introduction of DNA to our society which had already stimulated numerous innovations and theories. The prosperous founding of CRISPR-Cas9 promises our society a just, equal future with its capability to pinpoint gene sequences.58 With this finding as a tool, genetic modifications has stepped into a new age that enriches the medical field. Scientists are able to locate the stems of genetic diseases in pre-born babies and eliminate them. Not long after, the term “Designer Babies” has gradually received popularity by proposing the possibility of supplementing babies with pre-designed traits, talents and immunity. As the stated technology progresses, the future that was initially started as a possibility will soon turn into reality, then concludes as the universal norm. With what differences does our society progresses in comparison to Adolf Hitler’s Lebensborn Program? The tyrant’s globally revoked vision of the perfect world operated by pre-destined master race would become an acceptable reality.59 In a world that motivates the disappearance of diseases, average prolongation of life-span and absolute intelligence what role would human plays but to execute the ideals of their grandfathers. The role of architects and artists could no longer matter nor exist in this all-controlled society, even if they do, the extent of their significance in designing for human occupancy in this already-destined world would eventually vanish.
4.2 | Hitler’s Lebensborn Programme, Birth of the Aryan Race
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Furthermore, the same discovery leads to the proposal for our victory over one of our most violent enemies, mosquitoes. Malaria and dengue are held accountable for the deaths of many in history, whether humans or animals60, due to its high transmission rate and environmental conditions in certain parts of the world. World scientists therefore develops the antimalarial gene driving scheme by genetically engineering mosquitoes and releases these subsequently called Anopheles Gambiae mosquitoes back into the wild to spread the mutation.61 This method however carries the lethal potential of species eradication which raises the question on the ethicality of eliminating a part of nature intentionally.62 Endangerment of the entire globe seems selfish, but this scheme has staggeringly popularised in a 12-month frame.63 Termination of the ecological cycle could occur from these gene-driving acts when they are released as it does not only implemented on mosquitoes.
4.3 | Humanity against Malaria
This hypothetical chain of events only occurs because of the discovery of a single technology whilst other breakthroughs of the same calibre could be uncovered at any time. Regardless of the outcome, these instances are not to blame as they are merely an honest embodiment of human ethics. With the possibility to finally cure the crippled and diseased, the choice to remain stationery and ignore our capabilities might not be the wisest. Pessimism and disbelieve would only discourage the potential birth of an alternative architectural technology that promotes environmental health which could possibly decelerate the current progress of natural resources depletion. As we understand how the progress of science and technology are naturally tied to human exploitation, it is a matter of ethical consideration on whether we should use the available knowledge. Though human existence and its history is at stake for the price of attempting to design a worriless life, the era that triggers the tragedy is not to blame as it is principally the result of ethical attempts to solve what their forefathers’ had previously committed, started or caused.
60 | Antonio Regalado, The Extinction Invention, MIT Technology Review, Available at: https://www. technologyreview.com/s/601213/ the-extinction-invention/ [Accessed 19 January 2017] 61 | Amy Maxmen, Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World, Wired, Available at: https://www.wired. com/2015/07/crispr-dna-editing-2/ [Accessed 19 January 2017] 62 | Antonio Regalado, op. cit. 63 | Ibid.
Conclusion: A Utopian’s Dystopia Utopia. Technology of the Present. Unpredicted Dystopia.
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For all its charms, the island is uninhabited, and the faint footprints scattered on its beaches turn without exception to the sea.
In the end, a world inhabited by men is a world designed by men. The gift of conscience separates our actions into the appropriate and the inappropriate. Also as implicated by Wislawa Szymborska As if all you can do here is leave in her “Utopia” poetry, finding the ideal utopia could possibly and plunge, never to return, into the depths. be unnecessary as what people truly appreciates is the constantly Into unfathomable life. search of that answer, not the actual answer itself. The link between knowledge and nature can only be bridged with force and therefore, it is only a matter of ethical will and time to retrieve the answers. It Utopia64 is the inescapable bitter nature of knowledge that bears the sweetest fruit. Humanity’s coexistence with nature is perhaps an accurate representation of Hedgehog’s Dilemma, where the intimacy with nature would only inflicts damage to both parties65 with the solitary exception that our coexistence is inseparable. Possibly, the solution to this endless debate could be uncovered by answering whether the humankind is not intended to discover and leaving the natural untouched, or actually meant to discover and finally triggers their own extermination. Although this Fantasies of an Alternate Future dissertation straightforwardly criticises the course of our technological and architectural advancement, through offering an unorthodox perception of an alternative reality, it is impossible to conclude itself with a single, definite answer. Nineveh has not been designed to offer modern society a radical proposal for humanity’s future nor the study of it, but through grounding the design based on early illustrations and poetries, it performs as a constructive methodology to understand and accept the roots of world’s complications. Originated from a disappointment towards industrial progression and environmental degradation, this paper has gradually become a useful tool to recognise the non-existence of one ultimate answer or solution. Mankind’s bond to ethical reasoning has fuelled their decision-making intellect only to secure their chance of survival. The incompleteness of this paper has provided me, as the author, a gap to understand my role as an architect to moderate any personal idealism, pessimism and work with a range of existing elements to craft a better, visible future. Perhaps eventually with an appropriate amount of environmental understanding by the general population, a world with nobler societal perspective to Nineveh could finally be accomplished.
64 | Wislawa Szymborska, Utopia (Translated by S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh), A Large Number, 1976 65 | William Bouffard, The Hedgehog’s Dilemma, Puttin Cologne on the Rickshaw, Available at: http:// puttincologneontherickshaw.com/authors-blog/the-hedgehogs-dilemma/ [Accessed 23 January 2017]
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List of Figures. 0.1 | Le Corbusier, Plan Voisin, The Street, Available at: http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sysId=13&IrisObjectId=6159&sysLanguage=en-en&itemPos=2&itemCount=2&sysParentName=Home&sysParentId=65 ___
1.1 | Kevin Frayer, Step Inside China’s Illicit Steel Factories, WIRED, Available at: https://www.wired.com/2016/12/step-inside-chinas-hellish-illicit-steel-factories-kevin-frayer/#slide-1 1.2-9 | Kevin McElvaney, Inside the Hellscape where Our Computers go to Die, WIRED, Available at: https://www.wired. com/2015/04/kevin-mcelvaney-agbogbloshie/#slide-6 1.12-15 | Bytes, Holocene Extinction, Available at: http://bytesdaily.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-holocene-extinction.html ___
2.1 | Rare Historical Photos, Color Photos from Pre-War Nazi Germany, Available at: http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/color-photos-from-nazi-germany/ 2.2 | Paine, Albert Bigelow, Republican Elephant, Th. Nast: His Period and His Pictures, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904 ___
3.1 | History of Computers, Konrad Zuse - The First Relay Computer, Available at: http://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Relays/Zuse.html 3.2 | Original Artwork 3.3 | Lowell Hess, in Edward A. Hamilton, Graphic Design for the Computer Age: Visual Communication for All Media (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1970); reproduced by Endless Forms Most Beautiful.
3.4 | Original Diagram 3.5 | Original Artwork 3.6 | Original Artwork 3.7 | Original Artwork ___
4.1 | Frank Lloyd Wright, Broadacre City, The Disappearing City, 1932 4.2 | France Keystone, Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images. 4.3 | Thomas Kubes, ISIFA, Getty Images, Availabe at: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/6/24/study-ebola-may-havecaused-spike-in-Guinea-malaria-deaths.html
Appendices.
Ark of Nineveh
Architecture of Tomorrow
Nineveh’s Aquarium
Routine
The New Atlantis
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Maxmen A. (2015), Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World, WIRED, Available at: https://www.wired. com/2015/07/crispr-dna-editing-2/ McKnight S., A (2005), Francis Bacon’s God, The New Atlantis, Available at: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/francis-bacons-god. McNair R. (2006), Why Has Utopia Failed, Tomorrow’s World, Available at: http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/magazines/2006/november-december/why-has-utopia-failed Merton R. K (1936), The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action, p.894 Michael W (2009), Reclaiming Political Utopianism, The Utopian, Available at: http://www.the-utopian.org/ post/2410107552/reclaiming-political-utopianism Pallister J. (2011), Utopias, ‘Sustainism’ and architecture: between the possible and the impossible, Available at: https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/utopias-sustainism-and-architecture-between-the-possible-and-the-impossible/8611762.article Paul Virilio, The Original Accident, Cambridge: Polity, 2007, p. 10 Proto57, A Strange Coincidence, The 1901 Voynich Theory, Available at: https://proto57.wordpress.com/tag/bacon/ Sale P. F. (2005), Our Dying Planet, Berkeley: University of California Press Shakespeare W. (1988), The Complete works, Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (eds.), Oxford: Clarendon Press Sharr A (2012), Reading Architecture and Culture: Researching Buildings, Spaces and Documents, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, Inc, Introduction Spengler O. (1931, reprint), Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life, Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific, 2002 Spengler O. (1926), The Decline of the West, New York: Alfred A. Knopf Sukla A. (2015), Fiction and Art: Exploration in Contemporary Theory, London: Bloomsbury Publishing Tanizaki J. (1977), In Praise of Shadows (Translated by Leete Island Books, Inc), Sedgwick: Leete Island Books Vesely D. (2010), Architecture as a Humanistic Discipline, The Humanities in Architecture Design, Oxon: Routledge WIRED, Step Inside China’s Hellish, Illicit Steel Factories, WIRED, Available at: https://www.wired.com/2016/12/step-inside-chinas-hellish-illicit-steel-factories-kevin-frayer/#slide-12 Leslie Kavanaugh (2010), The Architect as Humanist, The Humanities in Architecture Design, Oxon: Routledge
Octorino Tjandra, 140007006