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SPOTLIGHT

Matthias Hollwich and


Marc Kushner

MEtreePolis 2075
In the late 21st century, human
optimisation of technology leads to
environmental manipulation that
inadvertently prompts ecological and
social utopia. Technology becomes nature.
Existing 20th-century buildings adapt to
the biogrid and become power producers
rather than consumers.

EcoRedux provides a vision that no longer fears the artificial


or the technological manipulation of the natural environment.
Existing buildings become integral to bio-grids; the ecologies
of excess are embraced; the skyscraper becomes the site of a
dystopian farm employing genetic engineering; and by-products
are employed in a generative capacity in the urban context.

Eva Franch i Gilabert

Cover of the Ecologies of Excess


Catalogue, Future City, Planet Earth, 2110
At Rice University in Houston, Franch i Gilabert
and the Ecologies of Excess student research
unit team developed an alternative vision of the
future. Rather than looking forward to a healed
planet, they envisioned a time in which the
ecologies of excess would be embraced.

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R&Sie(n) + Stephen Henrich


and Pierre Huyghe

Star Gate Venice, Broomwich


Project, Meudon, France, 2008
Machinism is invoked by Franois Roche and
R&Sie(n) as a new paradigm from which to
approach and touch narrative and subjective
protocols. Here the series of movements of
the machine, which acts as a star gate, are
captured.

Eric Vergne

Dystopian Farm Skyscraper,


Manhattan, New York, 2009
A new high-rise building type is developed for
Manhattan, the dystopian farm skyscraper.
Surfaces of the skyscraper, as shown here, are
maximised as growing surfaces. Technological
modes of food production, such as genetically
engineered crops, are embraced to optimise
production.

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Alexandros Tsamis

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Surrogate House, MIT, Cambridge


Massachusetts, 2010
Part of the Reaction-Diffusion research
undertaken at MIT, this project proposes
the development of continuously evolving
environments of exchange between substances
products and by-products. Rather than being
perceived as waste, by-products are proactively
employed to generate three-dimensional forms.

Terreform ONE + Terrefuge

Homeway, The Great Suburban Exodus, 2009


The infrastructure of New York requires
rethinking, so as to reduce the exponential
amount of waste and also to put it to beneficial
use. This top view along the updated interstate
depicts the regional conditions between
cities. In order to meet our ecological carrying
capacities, inferior patterns of sprawl need to
be rethought and dwellings brought closer to
existing infrastructural arteries.

Text 2010 John Wiley & Sons


Ltd. Images: pp 8-9 HWKN
(HollwichKushner); p 10 Eva Franch
i Gilabert; p 11(t) Eric Vergne; p
11(b) R&Sie(n) with Stephan
Henrich and Pierre Huyghe; p 12
Alexandros Tsamis; p 13 Mitchell
Joachim, Terreform ONE + Terrefuge

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