The Principles and Aesthetics of Sustainable Architecture

  • Course

  • Studio leaders

      • Jack May
        • OFFICE of CULTURE, TECHNOLOGY and ARCHITECTURE

“We (architects) like thin metal frames, all transparent walls, and so on and so forth. That has been the previous cannon of architecture. I think the best thing that architects could do for this world today, is to make thick frames and small windows cool, aesthetically. If we were able to do that, we would make a huge service to mankind. And I think architects have the capacity to do that. We’ve done it historically time and time again. I don’t know exactly how we would be able to solve the migrant crisis, but there are certain things that I can try to solve with architecture. And I think they are now important and politically loaded. I see them as opportunities to do architecture and I think this is the way we can contribute. We can have a true political agency.” Alejandro Zaera-Polo 2017

This unit will analyse exemplar works of architecture which make a contribution to a built environment requiring less, or no, artificially produced energy. After a period of research, analysis and drawing, students will extract principals from given precedents and deploy these as a series of model-scale apparatuses. The apparatuses will demonstrate an understanding of how each material component is used in conjunction with one another to create the desired performative outcome. Students will be encouraged to extend the extracted principle to enable the apparatus to out-perform its original application. A secondary theme of this unit is to consider the visual manifestation of these principals with a view to debunk the aesthetics which are usually associated with ‘passive’ or ‘sustainable’ architecture. Students will develop an attitude as to how the requirement for environmentally high-performing architecture can be regarded as an opportunity (rather than constraint) to supersede outdated aesthetic principles and design tropes, which continue to permeate the collective consciousness of the discipline.