Place-Based Architecture in the Global Future Perspective

The Real Cost of Material

Only to mention one of the hundreds of exhibits in the biennale, the Arsenale installation by Office for Political Innovations tells the story of a place whose consequences span the entire world. In the installation Shininess Explored, the structures of Hudson Yard in New York are scrutinized as examples of how architecture and the building industry became responsible for nearly half of global CO2 emissions. The titanium used to create the glimmering facades of the corporate office buildings in Hudson Yard is sourced in Xholobeni, a small area on the East Coast of South Africa. The extraction process sets the sands of the fields flying, affecting the respiratory health of the local people, and even, with storms, travelling all the way to southern Europe. Once installed on the New York facades, the self-cleaning shiny surfaces generate such heat from the sun, that the train tracks below would curb unless cooled mechanically by industrial fans with the capacity of jet planes, running their engines incessantly during sun hours. The extraction of materials in South Africa has thus on its way, not only affected the health of the bodies of the locals in the Titanium fields, but also caused the CO2 cost of transport, and once in its remote place, the continuous expense of cooling energy. If this sounds absurd, bear in mind this is only one, albeit well-researched, of tens of thousands of examples just like this. We have forged chainlinks.

The Local Is the Least Common Denominator of the Global

In the summer of 2023, the UIA World Congress of Architects brought the world of practitioners, 6000 from 135 countries, to Copenhagen where a time for change was declared and archtivism, biodiversity, social inclusion, universal design and climate justice were guiding the discussions. The potential and responsibility to transform the built environment from climate negative to climate positive is in our hands as architects and planners. Gathering in one place, in the physical framework of a congress, is a powerful form as a form of meeting. Gathering in one place shows us the strength by numbers – we are many! – yet at the same time demonstrating that the world is not much larger than us gathering in one place. In large as well as small sessions, these days in July 2023 provided a roadmap, or maybe rather a string of pearls, of place-based knowledge. In this international context, we were reminded that the local is the least common denominator of the world. Everyone is born somewhere, living somewhere, going somewhere. And in all the places, learnings are accumulating for every generation, and change is happening, for the better and for the worse. If we cannot draw a map as big as the land itself, we should make it possible for any place to tie a string of knowledge pearls to hand down for generations.

This article has presented an array of perspectives on place-based architecture. We are about to create a new way of seeing architecture in a time that calls out for new ways of being in the world.