2021–2022
Envisioning Responsible Relationships with Materiality
According to a United Nations Environment Programme report published in 2020, “natural resource extraction and processing still account for more than 90 percent of global biodiversity loss and water stress, and around half of global greenhouse gas emissions.” In a context of global environmental crisis and enduring resource inequality, it is essential to continue to reevaluate our relationship with materiality.
This year’s topic seeks to explore materiality from the micro- to the macroscale, bringing together designers and researchers from multiple disciplines in order to envision sustainable, responsible, and ethical relationships with materials and the communities that they come from. How do we shape nonexploitative networks of extraction, production, distribution, and waste? What type of social, cultural, and environmental landscapes do those new networks define? What are the roles and responsibilities of nations, corporations, communities, and individuals in shaping these networks? What are ways to limit the long-term impact on Earth of the human consumption of materials? And what material innovations—technical or in their application—present new possibilities?
Projects
MycoKnit: Cultivating Mycelium-Based Composites on Knitted Textiles for Large-Scale Biodegradable Architectural Structures
Soil Sisters: An Intersectoral Material Design Framework for Soil Health
Constructive Land
An Ontological Study of Structures and Their Materiality
2020–2021
Examining Social Justice in Urban Contexts
The built environment is defined by human-made decisions that have long-lasting impacts on our society. Today, we are in the midst of a critical conversation about how structural racial injustices, discriminatory policies, and uneven access to resources have shaped our society and our built environment for decades. Challenges like the current global health crisis reveal and amplify conditions that have always been present. These injustices and policies are manifested in both subtle and explicit ways across many areas—from housing, education, economy, and safety to public transportation, public space, health, and the environment. Governments, civic institutions, private organizations, professionals, and citizens continuously define, respond, and contest these conditions. Exploring and identifying long-term policies, immediate actions, and comprehensive plans have the potential to shape a more equitable and sustainable future.
Projects
Reclaiming Black Settlements: A Design Playbook for Historic Communities in the Shadow of Sprawl
Public Space and Scrutiny: Examining Urban Monuments through Social Psychology
Decolonizing Urban Landscapes: Reclaiming a Black and Indigenous Right to the City through Structural Design
Examining Social Justice Beneath the Surface: Taking European Public Swimming Pools as a Clue
Emotional Justice: Emotional Design of Urban Public Space
Spatial Reproduction in Industrial Areas: Study on Chinese Workers’ Spatial Production in Europe