In 2024, cepezed celebrates its 50th anniversary. We celebrate this, for one, with a lecture series in which we reflect on (our) architecture. Last Thursday, Véronique Patteeuw linked a number of architectural experiments to the founding of the Club of Rome. We were left with the inspiring feeling that we are heading in the right direction with cepezed.
construct
As an architectural historian, Véronique knows better than anyone that history is a construct. Historical facts are what they are, but if a connection is outlined, it is always something of an afterthought. And coloured. In her lecture 'Architecture In The Age Of Acceleration: Experiments Between High-Tech And Low-Tech' she reflected on architects whose work falls outside the accepted art-historical line. In her case, no 'isms', but experimenting architects and their motives.
blue marble
Motifs related to sustainability took shape around 1970 with the publication of several reports and books, including The Limits to Growth. This reflected a research report by the Club of Rome, on the devastating effects of our use of the earth. At the time, the planet's fragility was made all the more tangible by a novelty: photographs taken from space, of which Blue Marble from 1972 (Apollo 17 mission) is one of the most well-known.
eco science fiction
In comic books and science fiction, the doomsday scenarios outlined caught on enormously. There was even a genre of its own, 'eco science fiction'. The founding of change-oriented action groups like Greenpeace also dates from this era. Unfortunately, things were different for established politics. Although the United Nations invited Aurelio Peccei of the Club of Rome to a congress in 1972, Senator Gaylord Nelson launched Earth Day, and President Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House in 1979, his successor Ronald Reagan removed them just as quickly. In 2017, President Donald Trump even envisioned withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, the first global treaty aimed at limiting climate change, which had been signed two years earlier.
parallel history of architecture
Véronique points out that architects are not immediately inclined to consider the long-term consequences of their choices either. Exceptions of course, we at cepezed know this better than anyone else. Véronique notices that many architecture students nowadays opt for activism and do not want to build at all. Given the beautiful, activist architecture of the past, she thinks this is a missed opportunity. All the more important to show those examples: parallel architectural history as a way forward. By anticipating a way of life and making the footprint and weight of a building as small and light as possible, you can really make a difference as an architect.
1948
That parallel history appears to have begun as early as 1948. That year, architect Eleanor Raymond and scientist Maria Telkes designed the Dover Sun House, a house based on Telkes' earlier experiments and heated entirely by sodium sulphate (Glauber's salt). Another example is Drop City, the settlement built from 1960 onwards in southern Colorado. Prompted by the fantastic designs of Richard Buckminster Fuller, a group of enthusiasts designed dome houses made of car panels for Drop City. The 1973 oil crisis gave a major boost to the development of alternative ways of generating energy. By then, Drop City had been abandoned...
construct
As an architectural historian, Véronique knows better than anyone that history is a construct. Historical facts are what they are, but if a connection is outlined, it is always something of an afterthought. And coloured. In her lecture 'Architecture In The Age Of Acceleration: Experiments Between High-Tech And Low-Tech' she reflected on architects whose work falls outside the accepted art-historical line. In her case, no 'isms', but experimenting architects and their motives.
blue marble
Motifs related to sustainability took shape around 1970 with the publication of several reports and books, including The Limits to Growth. This reflected a research report by the Club of Rome, on the devastating effects of our use of the earth. At the time, the planet's fragility was made all the more tangible by a novelty: photographs taken from space, of which Blue Marble from 1972 (Apollo 17 mission) is one of the most well-known.
eco science fiction
In comic books and science fiction, the doomsday scenarios outlined caught on enormously. There was even a genre of its own, 'eco science fiction'. The founding of change-oriented action groups like Greenpeace also dates from this era. Unfortunately, things were different for established politics. Although the United Nations invited Aurelio Peccei of the Club of Rome to a congress in 1972, Senator Gaylord Nelson launched Earth Day, and President Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House in 1979, his successor Ronald Reagan removed them just as quickly. In 2017, President Donald Trump even envisioned withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, the first global treaty aimed at limiting climate change, which had been signed two years earlier.
parallel history of architecture
Véronique points out that architects are not immediately inclined to consider the long-term consequences of their choices either. Exceptions of course, we at cepezed know this better than anyone else. Véronique notices that many architecture students nowadays opt for activism and do not want to build at all. Given the beautiful, activist architecture of the past, she thinks this is a missed opportunity. All the more important to show those examples: parallel architectural history as a way forward. By anticipating a way of life and making the footprint and weight of a building as small and light as possible, you can really make a difference as an architect.
1948
That parallel history appears to have begun as early as 1948. That year, architect Eleanor Raymond and scientist Maria Telkes designed the Dover Sun House, a house based on Telkes' earlier experiments and heated entirely by sodium sulphate (Glauber's salt). Another example is Drop City, the settlement built from 1960 onwards in southern Colorado. Prompted by the fantastic designs of Richard Buckminster Fuller, a group of enthusiasts designed dome houses made of car panels for Drop City. The 1973 oil crisis gave a major boost to the development of alternative ways of generating energy. By then, Drop City had been abandoned...