Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism
Carson Chan and Matthew Wagstaffe
The exhibition and the accompanying publication will be the first comprehensive study of the history of environmental thinking in architecture at any major institution globally. During the 1960s, as Western notions of endless progress and growth gave way to concerns over industrial pollution, resource depletion, and ecological limits, attitudes toward the environment became social, political, and ideological. Published to accompany the first expansive study of the history of environmental thinking in architecture, Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism studies the role architects and designers have played in defining our understanding of “nature” and the “environment,” specifically during the rise of environmental discourse. The richly illustrated publication presents architectural contributions—from Ian McHarg’s ecosystem management approach to the radical architectures of the New Alchemists and Charles and Ray Eames’s oceanographic work with the Kennedy administration—to explore the role designers played in both promoting ecological concerns and in outlining the very terms of this nascent field. Through an introductory essay by curator Carson Chan and brief texts on each of the featured projects, Emerging Ecologies documents the proximity between ecology, design, and statecraft.
Carson Chan is the inaugural Director of the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment at The Museum of Modern Art, and a Curator in the Museum’s Department of Architecture and Design.
Matthew Wagstaffe is a Research Assistant at the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment at MoMA.
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