Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment

Description

How do we make sense of the Earth at a moment in which it is presented in crisis? Geostories is a manifesto for the environmental imagination that renders sensible the issues of climate change and through geographic fiction invites readers to relate to the complexity of Earth systems in their vast scales of time and space. The series of architectural projects becomes a medium to synthesize different forms and scales of knowledge on technological externalities, such as oil extraction, deep-sea mining, ocean acidification, water shortage, air pollution, trash, space debris, and a host of other social-ecological issues. The book is organized into three sections-terrarium, aquarium, planetarium, each of which revisits such devices of wonder that assemble publics around representations of the Earth. Through design research, Geostories brings together spatial history, geographic representation, projective design, and material public assemblies to speculate on ways of living with such legacy technologies on the planet. How do we make sense of the Earth at a moment in which it is presented in crisis? Geostories is a manifesto for the environmental imagination that renders sensible the issues of climate change and through geographic fiction invites readers to relate to the complexity of Earth systems in their vast scales of time and space. The series of architectural projects becomes a medium to synthesize different forms and scales of knowledge on technological externalities, such as oil extraction, deep-sea mining, ocean acidification, water shortage, air pollution, trash, space debris, and a host of other social-ecological issues. The book is organized into three sections-terrarium, aquarium, planetarium, each of which revisits such devices of wonder that assemble publics around representations of the Earth. Through design research, Geostories brings together spatial history, geographic representation, projective design, and material public assemblies to speculate on ways of living with such legacy technologies on the planet.

DESIGN EARTH is an architectural practice founded in 2010 by Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy. Their work has been awarded prizes internationally, including the Architectural League of New York's Prize for Young Architects + Designers, Jacques Rougerie Foundation's First Prize, and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Faculty Design Awards for outstanding work in architecture and related environmental design fields as a critical endeavor. They contributed to US Pavilion in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale and Kuwait Pavilion in the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, Boston Design Biennale, Oslo Architecture Triennale, and Sharjah Biennial. They have also contributed to solo and group exhibitions at institutions including Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon; Sursock Museum, Beirut; MIT Keller Gallery; Yale School of Architecture; Cooper Union Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery. Their work has been collected by the Museum of Modern Art. Ghosn and Jazairy are authors of Geographies of Trash (Actar, 2015). Rania Ghosn is an architect, geographer, and educator. She is Assistant Professor of architecture and urbanism at MIT. Rania holds a Doctorate of Design from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a Master in Geography from University College London, and a Bachelor of Architecture from American University of Beirut. Rania is recipient of the Boghossian Foundation Lebanon Prize and Fay Chandler Creativity grant. She is editor of New Geographies 2: Landscapes of Energy (Harvard GSD, 2010). El Hadi Jazairy is a licensed architect in Belgium and Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. El Hadi holds a Doctorate of Design from Harvard, a Master of Architecture from Cornell, and a Bachelor of Architecture from La Cambre in Brussels. El Hadi received the Europan 6 award and the Regle d'Or de l'Urbanisme. He is editor of New Geographies 4: Scales of the Earth (Harvard GSD, 2011).

"Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy think big--very big. The duo, who together form the studio Design Earth, create drawings that explore our ecological impact at the macro scale. Their new book, Geostories, showcases multiple drawing series on this theme. For example, one series depicts how humanity might adapt to an atmosphere-less Earth, while another details a real proposal that would use Antarctic icebergs to the supply the Middle East with water. Ghosn and Jazairy, who were tapped to participate in the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture, approach their sometimes grim scenarios with a sense of humor: Superstudio's Continuous Monument, Tatlin's Tower, and Bucky's Dome, among others, make cameos. It's slightly disappointing, however, that Geostories mostly reproduces Design Earth's color drawings in black-and-white." --Metropolis Magazine