What home for man?

“Today, it is the city that has expanded to the edges of the earth, while nature is restricted to its enclave, fenced off within the city walls. Therefore, technique – a means of dominating nature when in the hands of men – becomes the environment of man: everything that surrounds it and constitutes it.” (Umberto Galimberti, Psiche e techne. L’uomo nell’età della tecnica, Feltrinelli, Milan 1999. Translated by Domusweb editorial staff)

Two years after the publication of the encyclical Laudato si’ on caring for our common home and ecology in general, Pope Francis met the new President of the United States. Yet less than a month after the meeting, Donald Trump confirmed that the USA would be leaving the Paris climate accord. A few weeks later, for the first time in the history of aviation, dozens of flights were cancelled in Phoenix due to excessive temperatures which reached 50 degrees. Prometheus has been freed and men’s confidence in the wonder of tecnique has never been so high. Yet parallel to this, new evidence is emerging of the limits of Earth’s capacity of regeneration, while signs of climate change are becoming clearer and clear. And in the middle of all of this stands mankind.

  This edition of Domus Green explores the relationship between human, nature and technique. It does so with the contribution of thinkers and researchers from the world of philosophy and science as well as urban planners, architects, engineers and innovators from Italy and around the world. The result is a fascinating picture which describes and articulates some of the changes occurring and their potential future effects. The three initial interviews – conducted together with Mauro Olivieri, CEO of Arup Italia – set out the conceptual parameters of the supplement. Umberto Galimberti, Marco Lambertini, the director general of WWF International, and Stefano Boeri highlight the need to rethink the relationship between human and nature in the age of technique and to build a new ethical approach that safeguards the bodies of nature so that care for the health of mankind and nature is based around a common, systemic approach. This multi-faceted beginning is accompanied by a reflection by Mario Coppola and Leonardo Caffo on post-human architecture, overcoming anthropocentrism and the affirmation of the man-nature symbiosis, which is illustrated by Coppola by the antispeciesist deformation of the Vitruvian Man. Our attentions then turn to cities – the hub of contemporary life.

Stefano Recalcati outlines the experiences of three shining examples of informed approaches to the planning of high-urban-density areas: Portland, Singapore and Stockholm. Another key issue in urban areas is the mobility revolution: driverless cars, intermodal transport and shared transport are all destined to change not just the way we move around in the near future, but also the very make-up of our cities, their identity and our urban relationships. Next up are two macro-sections: the first on data-informed design and the second on the challenges related to contemporary sustainable architecture. The digital revolution has reached an advanced stage, with our daily lives marked by the incessant evolution of the digital world: we are immersed in a constant flow of data and stimuli which each one of us helps to generate and spread. The creative and design process now takes places on a stage where every piece of data and information imaginable is immediately available and can be elaborated in a new format even quicker. Architects can choose whether to ignore this phenomenon or become a part of it. Whether to gather this data, understand it, shape it, model it, parameterise it and put their own spin on it, in order to improve the quality and sustainability of the projects and relationships they are responsible for: man-man, man-nature, anthropic space-natural space etc.

All this poses a key question which Matteo Orlandi, the editor of the section, formulates thus: “Does the increased technological content in current design processes merely mean we do old things in a new way, or does the digital process in itself become the foundation of the project?” Four international design firms – BIG Architects, UNStudio, Arup and Elioth – provide their personal responses. Starting from different points of view, they tackle this extraordinarily complex subject, painting a multi-faceted – and never univocal – picture of the situation packed with food for reflection, provocation and stimulus. The final section in the issue, edited by Ilaria Nava, examines work by five key figures in contemporary architecture. In a period in which we are moving from the centrality of man to the centrality of technique, in which nature becomes vulnerable and is reduced to a mere parameter of our development, the missing piece in the new paradigms of the construction world is our discovery of the primordial power of nature as the element that generates and regenerates us.

The examples of architecture features have been chosen because they demonstrate the need to strike a balance between nature and technique, with man’s wellbeing as the joining factor. They attest to the emergence of a new type of sustainability: the equilibrium between man, nature and technique. In other words, you could say that in these works, the power of technique is not limited to its functional dimension, but used to benefit a new “harmonious dialogue” between man and nature. The section begins with an interview with Francis Kéré, a man who joins two worlds: the West and Africa. Kerè was chosen to design the Serpentine Pavilion in 2017. The section then focuses on Peter Pichler’s architecture at one with nature, UNStudio’s living station, a stunning example of using folds in architecture which utilises light to mould the space, and Amanda Levete’s museum-cum-landscape, which juxtaposes the natural environment of the riverside with the anthropic space that is the city. Finally, the section examines the sustainability system of Snøhetta, a great example of how men can organise and commit to safeguarding nature.

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