ON SITE r e v i e w our material future 36: 2020
Two things: new material technologies and the science of the climate crisis. We can demonstrate how things might be, we can devise more truthful forms of analysis, and we can turn to the state of the globe upon which our two feet stand: is it burning? is it underwater? is it forcing better methods of de-salination; of managing drought, of drainage? As architects, is it all about infrastructure, the managing of systems of delivery of the substance of life? or is it about amelioration at the most intimate level: how we live? Each essay in this issue addresses a different tipping point, from how we can better understand the ecology where natural meets man-made infrastructure, to recovering joy and optimism. The destructive global systems and ideologies that have brought us to the inter- related climate and governance crisis are focussing the mind: what must we save and how? This is not a rhetorical question, but a very real material one, tied directly to our physical well-being. In concentrating on the material capacity of the future to be resonant, practical, survivalist, one can neatly side-step the virtual, electronically-connected world wherein memory, fantasy and AI intertwine to replace the physical in importance. The material world offers shelter from the elements; the mind is otherwise engaged. As networked technology opens the door to projections of the past and the future, virtual and material reality will continue hand in hand, but it is material reality that is on fire.
contributors
contents
2
Introduction to our material future
Stephanie White
the drawing of things
4
Let It Rain, 2019: umbrellas and umbrella-ism
Dom Cheng
8
Material Memory: With words as their actions, 2014-2019, Ottawa
Lisa Rapoport, PLANT
12
New Material Anatomies: Formworks’ Murmur Wall, San Francisco
Maya Przybylski, J Cameron Parkin
16
Tools for Drawing the Land: Guelph’s agricultural hinterland
Emily Bowerman, Nadia Amoroso, Nathan Perkins
micro-urbanism
20
Micro-urbanism: methodologies of Dorrian and Hawker’s Metis
Stephanie White
24
Tianguis of Mexico City: informal markets and urban configurations
Joseph Heathcott
30
At the Foot of Lion Rock, Hong Kong
Joanne Lam
34
We are Needed: the death and resurrection of value-oriented designer
Maria Portnov, Jonathan Ventura
material memory
38
Materialising Memory at Rivesaltes, France
Lejla Odobasic Novo
42
WA/VE: structural recycling of cultural artefacts
Robert McKaye, Stoyan Barakov
44
Queen Elizabeth II Planetarium: preservation and restoration
David Murray
front inside cover books On Site review 37: lines, borders, walls, contagion back inside cover exhibitions
contributors Call for articles
48
on site review 36: our material future
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