BK Talks: A finite planet
Degrowth by design
20 april 2023 18:00 t/m 20:00 - Locatie: OOSTSERRE & Online - Door: Communication BK | Zet in mijn agenda
Op 20 april vindt de BK Talks 'A finite planet: Degrowth by design' plaats.
Degrowth by design
In 1969, three years before the Club of Rome published their “Limits of Growth” report, Ian McHarg had revived in his book “Design with Nature” the hope for establishing a healthier relationship between humans and nature.
Since the publication of those works, degrowth theory has advocated for the use of less of the world’s finite resources. However, for some it is shocking to witness how more than 50 years of scientific, technical, or philosophical progress of our civilization could not put an end to the belief in endless growth which led to, as Lewis Mumford wrote in his introduction to the 1969 edition of McHarg’s book, the ‘polluted, bulldozed, machine-dominated, dehumanized, explosion-threatened world that is disintegrating and disappearing before our eyes’.
Degrowth, a theory both supported and refused, has enormous political, societal, and cultural implications. Simply put, degrowth demands that many of us drastically change the way we live. Detractors of degrowth say economic growth is the backbone of all human achievements. Supporters argue that degrowth will spur ecological innovation and improve social wellbeing, with an economy based on values other than market prices and gross domestic product.
On April 20th, 2023, the BK Talks ‘A finite planet. Degrowth by design’, moderated by Mark Minkjan (editor at Failed Architecture) aims at reflecting on the need of degrowth. Does degrowth impact our system of values? More particularly, we want to reflect on what design can do to support the targeted scaling down of production and consumption proposed by degrowth theory. How can we design our way out of the myriad of crises our planet is facing and how does design culture need to shift? What changes in design education would equip a new generation of degrowth designers?
Moderator
Mark Minkjan
Editor, Failed Architecture
Mark Minkjan is an urban geographer and architecture critic. He is a member of Loom, editor at Failed Architecture and wrote for VICE, The Guardian and The Architectural Review. Mark co-edited various books, including Rewriting Architecture (2020). He taught at places like KABK The Hague, TU Delft and the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam, and received the Geert Bekaert Award for architecture criticism in 2017. Mark curates programmes and exhibitions, currently leading a public series of live conversations and podcast interviews on spatial design in the climate crisis at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture.
Panellists
Dr Darinka Czischke
Associate Professor of Housing and Social Sustainability, TU Delft
Dr Darinka Czischke is Associate Professor in Housing and Social Sustainability at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft. She is the founder of the Co-Lab Research group and co-founder of the working group ‘Collaborative Housing’ at the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR). Her current research and teaching focuses on how collective action can shape socially sustainable living environments, and on the role of architects and urban professionals working with citizens in coproduction relationships.
Andy van den Dobbelsteen
Professor of Climate Design & Sustainability, TU Delft
Andy van den Dobbelsteen works in the field of sustainable buildings and sustainable energy systems, as well as climate adaptation: anticipating predicted changes in the climate. At the chair of Climate Design and Sustainability at TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, he teaches and conducts research in the field of sustainable construction, using the key concept of 'smart & bioclimatic design', whereby local conditions (such as climate, soil, environment) are used optimally in the design of urban planning and buildings, to use resources sustainably.
Luísa Martins
Student of MSc Architecture, TU Delft, and representative of the Climate Action Group
Luísa Martins is pursuing an MSc in the Architecture track. She is developing a graduation project in the multidisciplinary studio City of the Future, in which she investigates the future of oil-related operational landscapes in Brazil, challenging conventional approaches to design and planning practices.
Marc Neelen
Stad in the Maak, Rotterdam
Marc Neelen is one of the members of Stad in de Maak (Rotterdam, 2014), a collective that experiments with new forms of living and working, contemporary commons and a future beyond labour. With Ana Džokić he heads the spatial practice STEALTH.unlimited (Rotterdam/Belgrade, 2000). Their work is situated between future fiction, spatial intervention and the politics of possibility.
Winne van Woerden
Commons Network
Winne van Woerden graduated in Global Health Sciences at Maastricht University and is currently obtaining a second master’s degree in Degrowth: Policy, Economy and Ecology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She works as lead Degrowth & Caring Economy at Commons Network, a political think tank for the social and ecological transition.
Practical information
This BK Talks will be streamed live from the Oostserre and can be followed via this link.