Geologic Time is No Longer Slow Time: Rapid Climate Change and the Architectural Site

In this era of rapid global climate change, landscapechanges that once occurred in geologic time scalesare now occurring within the lifecycles of buildings.Global surface temperatures, weather patterns,and lake and ocean levels are changing quickly andunpredictably. This new architectural context raisesquestions about existing practices in site-responsivearchitectural design: What are new ways of thinkingabout design that can account for both the geologicalhistory and the geological future of a given site? Whatis site-responsive design for sites with uncertain groundor climate? What are new theoretical frameworks fordesign thinking that offer insights into relationshipsbetween the built environment and the history andfuture of the global atmosphere?Since the Mendenhall Glacier Visitors Center was completedin 1962, the Mendenhall Glacier has retreatednearly 1.75 miles, leaving a large lake between thevisitors center and the glacier terminus. Glaciologistspredict that within 100 years the Mendenhall Glacierwill be gone. In this paper, we use the design of a newvisitors center for the Mendenhall Valley that curatesthe recent past and that anticipates enormous changein the near future, as a practical case study in the roleof geologic time in architectural design.

Volume Editors
Luis Francisco Rico-Gutierrez & Martha Thorne

ISBN
978-1-944214-08-1