Field Notes on Scarcity

An exploration of an architectural future that must rise to the challenge of climate change.

The scarcity of resources in all forms is commonly portrayed in a negative light. Yet these conditions—which have long been a reality in many extreme climate conditions across the global South and are increasingly becoming a global reality—often stimulate an abundance of innovation, inspiration, and ingenuity. Permanence has created a climate crisis, with spaces constructed with non-degradable materials, resource extraction without active replenishment, and buildings designed for single-eternal use. Our present reality is marked by a global pandemic, violent conflicts, and the looming threat of climate change-induced environmental disasters. Yet there remains an optimism about the creative possibilities that arise within these constraints.

Field Notes on Scarcity, published in conjunction with the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial, examines what scarcity truly looks like on the ground, and the challenges and opportunities it presents across architecture and design. Sixty scholars and practitioners from across the Global South—including Lesley Lokko, Yinka Shonibare, Formafantasma, Rahul Mehrotra, Olalekan Jeyifous, Abeer Seikaly, Ilze and Heinrich Wolff, Chitra Vishwanath, and Deema Assaf—contribute reflections, poems, visual essays, and dialogues exploring what scarcity represents, what it inspires, and what it reveals.

Tosin Oshinowo is an architect, creative entrepreneur, public speaker, and author based in Lagos, where she runs her own design consultancy firm CmDesign Atelier. She was the curator of the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial.

Julie Cirelli is a Stockholm-based American journalist and editor and co-director of Zurich-based architecture publishing house Park Books.