Ecologies of Inception: Design Potentials on a Warming Planet

Ecologies of Inception rethinks potentiality in architecture and design by challenging the modern paradigm of design practice, which prioritizes the technical tabula rasa and the use of raw, amorphous, and obedient materials. Instead, the book introduces a nodal and exaptive paradigm for design that engages the durational and anthropocenic materiality of the third millennium and prioritizes practices of maintenance, reuse, care, and co-option. This approach is inspired by evolutionary biology, technological disobedience, queer use, adaptive reuse, experimental preservation, and improvisational practices and refuses to reduce pre-existing material substrates to abstract lists of properties or featureless lumps.

Format: Hardback
Length: 300 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Responding to the escalating concerns of planetary pollution, waste generation, carbon dioxide emission, and environmental collapse, Ecologies of Inception offers a fresh perspective on the potentiality of objects to change in architecture and design. The book challenges the prevailing modern paradigm of design practice, which often begins with a technical tabula rasa and relies on raw, amorphous, and obedient materials that can be easily manipulated. Instead, the text proposes a collective reconsideration of value, dissociating it from the projects and signatures of any one author or generation.

While the merits of up-cycling and circular design are often celebrated in the context of existing economic and socio-cultural orthodoxies, the book unpacks the theoretical assumptions that underpin these practices. It reveals that these practices perpetuate the same biases and exclusions that generate waste in the first place.

In response, the book introduces a nodal and exaptive paradigm for design. This paradigm is a conceptual and methodological toolset for engaging the durational and anthropocenic materiality of the third millennium, and for radically prioritizing practices of maintenance, reuse, care, and co-option. Inspired by a range of sources, including evolutionary biology, technological disobedience, queer use, adaptive reuse, experimental preservation, and improvisational practices such as collage, adhocism, bricolage, and kit-bashing, this approach refuses to reduce pre-existing material substrates to abstract lists of properties or featureless lumps. Instead, it encounters them on their own terms, recognizing them as situated individuals and co-authors in the broader ecosystem of design.

By adopting a nodal and exaptive approach, Ecologies of Inception seeks to redefine the role of objects in architecture and design. It encourages designers to think beyond the immediate function and aesthetics of an object and to consider its long-term impact and potential for adaptation. This approach emphasizes the importance of maintaining and preserving existing materials and structures, rather than simply discarding them and starting from scratch. It also encourages designers to explore new ways of using and reusing existing objects, and to collaborate with other stakeholders and disciplines to create sustainable and resilient systems.

In conclusion, Ecologies of Inception offers a compelling vision for a more sustainable and resilient future of architecture and design. By challenging the status quo.quo and promoting a collective reconsideration of value, the book encourages designers to think beyond the immediate needs of the present and to consider the long-term impacts of their work on the planet and its inhabitants. Through the introduction of a nodal and exaptive paradigm for design, the book provides a conceptual and methodological toolset for engaging the durational and anthropocenic materiality of the third millennium, and for prioritizing practices of maintenance, reuse, care, and co-option. By adopting this approach, architects and designers can contribute to the creation of a more sustainable and inclusive world.

Weight: 453g
Dimension: 246 x 174 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367858759