2023 ACSA/EAAE Teachers Conference, Educating the Cosmopolitan Architect

Matterscapes

Teachers Proceedings

Author(s): Ophelia Mantz

Ecological awareness starts with visualizing the time and space embodied in every element of the built environment. From substance called matter extracted from the earth system to material made, transported, and converging in a building, the afterlife of material can trigger different timescales depending on its ability to be part of a loop. For this reason, studying the material’s life cycle begins with understanding the time dimension behind the “Matter-Material-Matter?” sequence. Matter, extracted from the earth’s crust, generates an economy and a social organization. From industrial landscapes to eco-logical upheavals, the transformation and transport of matter shape our living environment. Matterscapes means a comprehensive view of the matter. This concept aims to decipher the interconnection between different network systems integrated into the use of materials. Matterscapes respond to the scrambling of networks and data triggered by globalization and the abstraction of climate change. The content of the “Matterscapes” class is directly linked to the urgency of visualizing the journey of matter far beyond its temporality restricted by the life of a building. Visualizing the economic, social, and ecological landscapes intertwined in the life of matter could initiate the power of actions in our psychology.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2023.37

Volume Editors
Massimo Santanicchia

ISBN
978-1-944214-44-9