Our cities today in a simple verbal illustration would be ‘organised chaos’: the eloquent conspiracy theorist might report major corporations as masters of masses, their reigns being the rampant consumer culture of the world. To the less paranoid it might still look like layers of society being altered in manner most suited to the ones falling higher in the economic food chain.
Things may or may not be controlled to the extent we think they are, but certainly our priorities are being directed in a manner most suited for our self-created concepts and issues of Economy, rather than the foremost issue being the Ecology or environment. Although it has been accepted by most Ecological Economies/Economists that Nature capital is an irreplaceable and priceless commodity, it is often overlooked and/or side-lined when it becomes a question huge sums of money. In simpler words an ethical (in favour of the environment) stance is not assumed when the interests of large corporate powers are at jeopardy.
International competition organized by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, Barcelona Team Members: Bhrigu C. Kalia and Yasir Hameed Exploring alternates for a better tomorrow in a bottom’s up aproach. From the individual to the neighbourhood, to the city, to the globe.
Ecocentrism may draw a path more inclusive, more complex, more integrated, and perhaps more utopian, but it denotes certain humility in the approach, that the materials of the earth are not to be used exclusively by humans for serving the needs of humanity. That in fact, people are inseparable from the organic and inorganic nature that surrounds them. Perhaps a slight shift in our outlook may change the course of our future, perhaps if we were to acknowledge the value of clean air and water in direct equality to the money we desire so much, we may find the true cost of the damage we have done. Perhaps its time to rewire the future and undo the effects of what we’ve done.
Shortlisted in top 20s amongst 240 teams from all over the world and to be published in forthcoming book.
It is our anthropocentric approach to all concerns that has led us to our current state: Man’s prime motive being his own welfare at the cost of the other species it shares the planet with. Man has changed the surroundings to fulfil his own needs i.e. altered habitats of other species, harvested the earths minerals to near exhaustion, depleted biodiversity by favouring a limited gene pool (growing only favourable species of crops), polluting the atmosphere, oceans and rivers . Man has the leading role in creating an imbalance in natural cycles, and ultimately creating an undesirable situation for himself.
_rewiring the future