GEO-Aesthetics: Architecture in the Age of the Anthropocene

The emergence of the Anthropocene as a geological epoch has irrevocably altered our relationship to the planet. The technological effects of our actions do not dissolve into air but register deep in the atmospheric and material aggregation we call Earth. Ovid’s lyrical dictum, everything changes, nothing perishes rings true more than ever. Urban architecture, due to its large carbon footprint, has been complicit in driving the changes leading to the Anthropocene. While the deployment of sustainable materials and building practices are crucial, they alone cannot provide a comprehensive understanding for what it means to ‘design’ in a synthetic world where familiar categories of knowledge no longer apply. Architecture, as a cultural practice, must, therefore, venture beyond questions of engineering and seek to provide positive ideas that reflect the unprecedented circumstances of our times. New narratives need to be devised that are not solely focused on ‘fixing’ problems but provide visions that excite, engage, and reconnect us with our physical environment in novel and more visceral ways. The Anthropocene’s hybrid constitution, its rather strange conceptual, affectual, and aesthetic properties, open compelling territories for reexamining architecture’s role in articulating new forms of urban life.