THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AS A STORY TELLER

Buildings are not static entities. They undergo dynamic transformations as a response to constant environmental forces. However, they are the leading evidence of social and political change within a community. By housing human interactions and being directly exposed to the elements of the environment - buildings become a source of media. Hence, this is the media Forensic Architecture investigates.

Unlike traditional architecture firms, Forensic Architecture does not design architecture - or for the built environment. They use the built environment and its experiences to investigate cases of state violence, human rights violations and environmental crises all around the world. They raise awareness around these issues that are sometimes hidden or sometimes covered up by those with power. Understanding this forensic lens into the architecture we live and see everyday, has made Forensic Architecture, a revolutionary agency.

Forensic Architecture emerges as an ‘attempt to transform the built environment from an illustration of alleged violations to a source of knowledge or awareness about historical events – or as a complex methodology aimed at narrating histories from the things that it shows. This idea of the material aesthetic drives the agenda of the agency. Understanding that relations exist between objects and their proximity to one another inscribed in the object itself.

“WE TRY TO PRESENT INCIDENTS IN THEIR HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXTS - TO RECONSTRUCT THEM AROUND THE WORLD THAT MADE THEM POSSIBLE”

(FORENSIS 2014)

ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM

‘DEATH ALLEY, LOUISIANA

ENVIRONMENTAL / CULTURAL CRISIS

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION MYANMAR

HISTORICAL ERASION

STATE VIOLENCE

SHELLING OF KHUDAIR WAREHOUSE

“THINK OF US AS A PATHOLOGIST FOR BUILDINGBUILDINGS ARE MEDIUMS OF INSCRIPTIONS”

(WEIZMAN, 2017)