Anthropocene Urbanism
For the past decades of urbanism, human has been the center of the discussion. The collection of infrastructures in many cities has bolstered human livings and the man-made environment is now synonymous with living conditions that comfortable and essential to human life. While packed in small parcels and scattered in cities, nature has been pushed out to the boundary of cities, making the contradiction of city and countryside; human and nature. The rise of the Anthropocene urges us to rethink this dichotomy. Selective projects in this book are the reaction through, what I call, Environmental Infrastructure to the call. Environmental Infrastructure is not about green energy or sustainability but rather the vessel manifesting the Anthropocene impacts through architecture. Energy as a Commodity is a project based on a hypothetical future scenario. With surplus energy as a medium of exchange and overarching infrastructure, the project explores a new urbanscape through the lens of capitalism. In Ashes to Ashes, the coal-leachate treatment center directly addresses the landfill humans have left on the ground. While transforming the site into a nature park as evidence of Anthropocene, the center gives people a glimpse of the amount of energy we should put into reversing human impact. Double Velocity is an environmental infrastructure as the reaction to sea level rise. Scoping Jacksonville, Florida, as a specific site, the project explores megastructure on the water as a future shelter. Rebirth is a pavilion made of carefully salvaged materials from an abandoned building, providing people with a chance to climb up and experience those materials. The projects in this book make the man-made environment more sensible. Through the lens of environmental infrastructure, we can glimpse the imminent future – what I call Anthropocene urbanism – by thinking beyond the conventional boundary of humans and nature.