About

MATT COOPER

Seriously, I think that we are headed into a period of sustained and continually-refreshed emergency, and that the dislocation of traditional cultures and societies is going to be one of the greatest challenges for the profession of architecture in the coming decades.

Many years ago I read The End of Nature by Bill McKibben, one of the first books to lay out the science of climate change for the popular audience, and ever since I've been trying to develop my own tools for addressing the problem. In construction this has historically been the practice of 'green building', what is now called 'sustainability'. To my mind this is limited, and possibly somewhat naïve. Not making things worse is no longer enough; we must begin make things better. The impacts of global warming are embedded now, and it falls to all of us to devise a new way of living, one centered around adaptation. 

Architecture will have a hand in this evolution, and not just as proponents of engineering solutions. There are conceptual changes that must also be realized as we ask populations to abandon traditional geographic locations and to reassert their own histories in a new 'site'. Vernacular architectures, which have developed as responses to stable climates and the material resources of a location, may no longer be suitable. One of the challenges for the profession is to devise and implement new forms that will, in spite of not carrying the imprimatur of history and tradition, be acceptable to displaced populations. 

The problem of refugee housing also is something that must be addressed. Mere physical survival can't be all we strive for, given that many of these 'camps' become de facto cities with durations that can encompass a generation. 

We live in interesting times, and architecture has a chance to be part of shaping the response to a new paradigm that is being imposed upon us. It will be an interesting time for the profession, as well.