CITYLEFT /// TOWARDS TRANSDISCIPLINARY URBANISM: Exhibitions

Showing posts with label Exhibitions. Show all posts

Transforming Legacy (2025, Venice Architecture Biennale)

The advancement of AI and automation is progressively displacing local and traditional knowledge. This shift is particularly noticeable in the Arctic, where technological developments in resource extraction shape the relationship to place. But what new forms of "intelligence" are emerging? What new spaces are we starting to inhabit?

The current Arctic urban development model, driven by extractivism, is significantly impacting urban structures under the guise of “smart city” initiatives, considered as the latest mantra of city makers and academic thinkers. In contrast, the vernacular's ancestral intelligence, seen in Sami’ sustainable reindeer herding practices, or in some traditional techniques of Arctic fishing communities along rivers, offer alternative, more rural, and dispersed models of sustainability that attract people to the region.

The evolution of extractives culture demonstrates how advanced digital systems alter human interactions in the territory, producing tensions but also unexpected and unexplored overlaps.

https://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/2025/out/transforming-legacy-evolution-extractive-cultures-european-arctic

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Arctic hypothesis (2024, Luleå Architecture Biennale)

The exhibition aimed to promote dialogue on climate and economic transition in the Arctic from an architectural and urban planning perspective, as well as to use architecture creatively to explore future alternatives for society in the Swedish Arctic.

The Arctic is expected to be the 21st century's refuge. To quote environmental journalist Gaia Vince, "we are entering a nomadic era where Arctic cities are expected to expand, and new urban centers will emerge." The Arctic represents a small portion of the world's landmass and population. The climate change crisis opens up new opportunities for the centralization of the Nordic countries in global dynamics such as migration, natural resource management, and secure housing. The potential for climate change-induced migration to the Arctic presents a new narrative for the historically shrinking population base. This migration process can reverse historical population decline and lead to rapid expansion of existing cities and the construction of new ones. This raises a range of questions related to social and environmental justice. What aspects should architectural research prioritize to shape the environment for this possible future? How can modern technology support architecture and urban planning for innovative design processes?

Architecture and design play a crucial role in the current energy transition. On one hand, a sound and aware architecture design process can greatly reduce the embodied and operational energy of our living space while, on the other hand, users’ experience and behavior must be considered to ensure their engagement and wellbeing.

We used this approach as a starting point for our submission to the Biennale. Our artifact displays the results of two combined courses in architecture and design, which were included as part of an ongoing research project (Nordic Innovative Living) at LTU funded by the Swedish Energy Agency.

The project's vision was a smart home where people live in symbiosis with the surrounding nature and use attractive solutions for a zero-climate footprint. The goal was to co-design a future model for smart homes built in Swedish Lapland, with smart solutions and services for effective and lasting behavioral changes and, through this, to spread knowledge about how people of different ages, abilities, social strata and gender can live more sustainably.

The project/course used a trans-disciplinary and co-creative design approach to explore people's behaviors with, and barriers to, smart energy technology. The students of architecture and design cooperated in creating solutions for sustainable housing and living in and through the co-creation of a smart home.

Our artifact collects a selection of proposals developed by students involved in this project/course. It takes the form of an archival storage drawer unit, where the work of the students is stored, presented, and shared with the public. A reference for this concept is the exhibition "A is for Archive" at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, which exhibits the contents of Warhol’s so-called time capsules. Similarly, the artifact will embody this concept to offer the visitors an interpretation on how the future sustainable living could look like.