Representing Sustainability: An Exploration of Theoretical Frameworks and Operational Methodologies

Abstract

Sustainability and environmental design are often positioned as the indisputable answer to the many problems we now face as a result of carbon modernity. While more responsible measures are imperative in order to overcome carbon forms and establish a paradigm shift in energy and construction, the symbols we now associate with sustainability, such as wind turbines, extensive greenery, and natural materials, no longer effectively identify projects that align with the necessary efforts; inversely, projects that lack the charisma or the established aesthetic of the aforementioned symbols are more likely to remain unrecognized as expressions of sustainability. Furthermore, as the architectural object can never exist devoid of its context, individual interventions in the built fabric must always be considered in relation to the culture and environment that they are a product of, regardless of how conscious or “green” they might be or claim to be. Through an exploration of architecture that operates between the scales of the self and the room, a practice of representation as a dialogue between different mediums and scales, the leveraging of procedural values of study and analogous application, and the implementation of an iterative process of composition, prototyping, and deployment, Program Walls was developed as an intervention within the domestic realm. Nevertheless, the primary components of Program Walls transcend their presented medium and scale, with attention placed instead on architectural thinking and how it relates to sustainability, materiality, form, and flexibility. In this manner, the developed artifacts and spatial organizations not only speculate a future housing fiction but also begin to contribute towards a discourse that champions an embedded consideration for sustainability that exists at the forefront of the design process over the inclusion of posthumously incorporated ornaments or costly premiums, regardless of the recognition and enticement the latter might feasibly gather.