METABOLIC LOGIC

Cities are no longer considered isolated entities but understood as material constructs which are interconnected to the environment through flows of matter, energy and information. Interior architecture, as a material practice, establishes an ecological web of connections between buildings and the bio-geosphere. Unlike modern industrial systems where non-renewable materials follow linear flows from mine to dump, this seminar explores the design potential of considering building components as part of the planet’s material systems. Unlike modern industrial closed systems, this novel cradle-to-cradle understanding considers building materials to be in a perpetual flow, and therefore the design of material logistics and assemblage logics becomes a crucial architectural driver.

CLIMATIC LOGIC

Global warming has situated the atmosphere as a central design driver. Buildings and urban environments can, through its spatial and material lineaments, provide specific microclimates. Challenging the modern insulated-envelope paradigm, buildings interact with local climatic conditions articulating an open-system thermodynamic approach to architecture. Interestingly this field of enquiry needs to understand the connection between climate, architecture, social behaviour and the human body, introducing health and comfort, well-being and pleasure (physiology, psychology and neuroscience) as questions on which designers need to take stock.

POST-OCCUPANCY LOGIC

Human occupation rhythms dynamics differ substantially from meteorological, biological and geological timescales. Determined by generational and social timeframes and by economic cycles. the adaptability and obsolescence of buildings is a major challenge that needs to be addressed by designers. As a result, the flexibility and resilience, or the durability and maintenance of buildings, become key factors to evaluate how the embedded energy stocked in buildings is used and amortized by society fulfilling the maximum power principle.