The Mission Debrief

Beyond heroism & human health, Toward mutually reinforcing solutions

On a warm August afternoon in Pittsburgh, fifty delegates dispersed, buzzing with the energy of final pitches just delivered. We had gathered as a full group only 48 hours prior; a collection of eight teams whose ambitious preparations were swiftly reality-checked by Chris Luebkeman Ph.D. ‘s presentation of global turmoil and possible futures. The talented Christian Benimana of MASS Group, summarized the doctor’s message only a few minutes later: we were not there to discuss saving the planet, but merely saving humanity’s place on it.

The horizon of possible futures Dr. Luebkeman presented have been published in Arup Group’s “2050 Scenarios: Four Possible Futures.” Well worth a quick read, it defines potential outcomes via a quadrant matrix - a Y-axis of Planetary Health, an X-axis of Societal Health. Our future is headlined by a bettering of bothdubbed the ‘Post Anthropocene’ - with adjacent quadrants clearly imbalanced (‘Greentocracy’, and ‘Humans Inc’) and a final worst-case scenario ‘Extinction Express.’ Given a few months’ distance from the session, titled “The Future is Oversold and Underimagined”, I have to wonder if this is the full horizon of our possibilities? Can Mission 2130 allow us to chart a more positive and ambitious course for our profession and society?

We need saving

There is no doubt we -humans- have an out-sized impact on the other species on the planet. As of 2018 we accounted for 96% of all mammalian biomass (our own and our domesticated animal support)1. Our activities from pesticides, microplastics, and global warming have led to massive shifts in plant, animal, and bacterial populations the world over2,3 To date environmental movements have adopted narratives of restoration, stewardship, and preservation4, in an effort to bring our society in line with ecological limits. Yet, current data suggests our impact has pushed beyond the abilities of restorative means.

In any good script this is the act where a hero would rise to save us: the wunderkind designer, or some beautiful technological solution that will eventually save us. Simple narratives make great stories but in reality, the premise of an individually heroic solution is often short-lived and socially divisive. Lasting change is not quick nor is it cleanly good or bad. The worst things our society has done (extinction of species, climate warming) have manifested slowly until the limits of our systems are hit.

Designing for Integration

The case against individual heroism is not often made; when it is, it is often framed as a glorification of participation ribbons. Everyone at Mission 2130 left knowing the future demands more action than any one of us can create on our own. In the next hundred years, we must shift our field toward collective heroism with the goal of raising our internal professional expectations. Outwardly, this will require practicing with purpose. Architecture cannot merely become a luxury leveraged by those who can afford us. We must recognize our contract with society to provide shelter, in its multitude of facets, both near and long term; this will require integrating social and ecological solutions.

Christian Benima’s presentation ‘The Architecture of Health’ may have started with the stark summarization of our purpose at the conference but it quickly moved the group forward to consider architecture’s role as an integrator of both social and environmental variables. Surveying a number of MASS Design’s hospital projects governed by the Rwanda Hospital Design Standards, Benima noted many families were avoiding the hospitals for childbirth, averse to the idea of healthy mothers at the same facility as the ailing. MASS engaged with this stigma and provided design solutions that separated facilities, and helped break the stigma. The standards adopted for construction demanded both a social and ecological touch, utilizing volcanic rock on-site such that it did not become waste and capitalizing on hyper-local skill for shaping the material. Beyond this, buildings were sensitive to existing ecological conditions, particularly ventilation and rainwater, detaining or capturing it for use.

Immediate and multifaceted, these lessons show the compounding power of designing to integrate buildings socially and ecologically. With this as our baseline, the horizon of possibilities can become even more aspirational. Through further ecological integration, Architecture can enhance the surrounding biosphere by engaging in Mutualistic Symbiosis. In truth built form is an extension of the earth’s surface, and needs to actively participate as such. Finding ways that enhance and support our growing population and greater biodiversity. In 2019, The Living installed an exhibition entitled ‘Subculture’ at The Storefront for Architecture. Aimed at displaying the microbiome of the city the iconic storefront was embedded with habitats for bacteria and incubators for micro-organisms. A contrast in scale between life on the street and the biomass of the organisms that make our world possible, it provided even lay personas a glimpse at the potential for enriched environments through the duality of built forms.

Designing for Values

Further, ‘Subculture’ undermined traditional values of beauty and cleanliness.7 Given the opportunity to define our future, are these the values we want to continue to uphold? In the century and a half after Labrouste’s St. Genieve Biblotheque inscribed book titles on its facade the importance of education rose to the glorification of study at Sendai Mediatheque. Our profession has always had the power to shape- and be shaped by- social values. Each team had unique values driving their Mission 2130 responses. Ultimately the proposals were designing our engagement with the public in the next century .

Focusing YAF Summit 30 on the year 2130 was a clear acknowledgment of long-termism. The value bound most teams to solutions that reinforced positive social outcomes. Architects are accustomed to thinking on longer time scales, due to the time and energy demands of built form our prototypes are built precedents. We have a responsibility to help clients and the public take a long view of a project’s impact and lifespan.

Once created, buildings are part of the social and biological environment. Most teams were responsive to the world we currently inhabit, with proposals that acknowledge, shape, and alter it. Never subtract, transform - that was Anne Lacaton’s message upon the event of the annual Ratensky Lecture at Cooper Union in 2021. When considering how much design thinking is needed, reframing architectural work as transformation rather than creation, allows us greater understanding of the existing and the possible. These are opportunities not to be ignored for the creation of siloed icons. Such efforts betray our skills to create products enriched by interaction; and betray the public who interact through lived experience not as images from the day of completion.

Ultimately, the prioritization of these values will provide architects with a larger platform in social and political conversations to advance integrated design solutions. Starting with policy changes, local and national, we have to lobby for the public, not for ourselves as small businesses. If we communicate in ways that maximize opportunities through integration, we will have a seat at every table. Discussions on ‘rewilding’ are discussions about wildlife integration at the borders of human development. Discussions about climate change are discussions about the changing needs of human shelter. Discussions about waste are discussions about misallocated materials; these are not conversations we should shy away from.

Into our next century

Though our world cannot be as it was before the human population boom, we must choose to set a path forward that maximizes its potential to thrive. Taking a longer focus is empowering as it gives us space to imagine a change to our current course to define where we want to go, and what role we want this profession to have in the future. For perspective, one hundred and nine years ago The Great War started, in its lead up architects were grappling with serious questions of population boom, housing and food shortages. There were aspirational designs for better housing. In the war’s wake aspirations that design could help prevent such conditions again. Yet those designers passed, their ambition was tossed aside as failure in the advent of World War II, the designs themselves perverted into ‘styles’ used to symbolize wealth and stand in for real progress. This is not a failure but a precedent because we must dream again. We must aspire to the health of our planet in a way that we have yet to envision. Leaving behind style and heroism, we can shape the values of design for the next 100 years.

FOOTNOTES:

1 Greenpeace, “How much of earth’s biomass is affected by humans,” Rex Weyler 18, July 2018 https://www.greenpeace.org/international/ story/17788/how-much-of-earths-biomass-is-affected-byhumans/#:~:text=We%20find%20out%20that%20humans,all%20 mammal%20biomass%20on%20Earth.

2 The biomass distribution on Earth,Yinon M. Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo.Published 19 June 2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

3 Marine Litter, Plastics, and Microplastics and their toxic components: The need for urgent preventive measures; Frederic Gallo, Cristina Fossi, Roland Webber, David Santillo, Joao Sousa, Imogen Ingram, Angel Nadal and Delores Romano. Published 18 April 2018, Environmental Science Europe

4 Half Earth, E. O. Wilson. WW Norton & Company, 2016.

5 World Health Organization, “Newborn Mortality” Newsroom Fact Sheets, 28 January 2022. https://www.who.int/news-room/factsheets/detail/levels-and-trends-in-child-mortality-report-2021

6 World Organization for Animal Health, “Eradication is not the end of the Rhinderpest story”, 22 November 2018. https://www. woah.org/en/eradication-isnt-the-end-of-the-rinderpeststory/#:~:text=Rinderpest%20was%20declared%20eradicated%20 in,leading%20to%20famine%20and%20starvation.

7 Subculture: Microbial Metrics and the Multi-Species City. http:// storefrontnews.org/programming/subculture-microbial-metrics-andthe-multi-species-city/. Exhibited 2019. Designed and brief written by Kevin Slavin / Elizabeth Hénaff / The Living (David Benjamin, John Locke, Danil Nagy, Damon Lau, Dale Zhao, Ray Wang, Jim Stoddart, Lorenzo Villaggi) In collaboration with Evan Eisman Company.

Informative Sources:

Dognut Economics, Raworth, Kate. Chelsea Green Publishing 2017

Cradle to Cradle : Remaking the Way We Make Things. McDonough, William. New York: North Point Press, 2002.

2050 Scenarios: Four Possible Futures, Foresight Research and Innovation. December 2019

Nathan Strieter, AIA RA

Nathan Strieter, AIA RA is a Director with LSM in New York City. Strieter began LSM’s NYC extension in 2018; is a DAAP alumnus, and ardent urbanist.