XXL-XS: New Directions on Ecological Design [Paperback] Joachim, Mitchell and Mike Silver

Architecture must not only be functionally green, but its formal, conceptual and physical properties also need to constitute a novel and integrated living material system, one that can flourish within the larger world around it.

XXL-XS represents the emerging discipline of ecological design by assembling a wide range of innovators with diverse interests. Geo-engineering, synthetic biology, construction site co-robotics, low-energy fabrication, up-cycling waste, minimally invasive design, living materials, and molecular self-assembly are just a few of the important advances explored in the book. At one extreme are massive public works, at the other, micro to nano-sized interventions that can have equally profound impacts on our world. From terraforming to bio-manufacturing, a whole new generation of designers is proposing unique ways of confronting the difficult challenges ahead. In this way design becomes a totality of relationships that affects all disciplines, which can no-longer be thought of as self-contained fields, each handled separately by narrowly focused specialists. Globalization demands a restructuring of the profession, as we know it. This requires a new breed of generalists who can work across fields and engage research on multiple sites around the globe. Today we need planetary designers versed in the craft of integral design.

Our thesis is therefore both global and performative in scope. We need an architecture that is more than just a constellation of bio-picturesque images, digitally generated surface effects, and conventional materials. We seek a holistic architecture that uses the best techniques to connect directly with existing natural systems while creating a renewed ecology that can sustain itself well into the future. Along these lines, many of the projects featured in this book simply abandon the old tropes and construction processes of the past by creating numerous green alternatives that proliferate along unexpected pathways.

Mitchell Joachim is an architect and urban designer, Co-Founder of the nonprofit design research group Terreform ONE, and Associate Professor in Practice at NYU. He co-authored the books, Super Cells: Building with Biology (TED Books) and Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned (Prestel). He was featured in numerous articles, including “The 100 People Who Are Changing America,” in Rolling Stone, “The Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To,” in Wired.

Mike Silver, Assistant Professor of Architecture at University of Buffalo, pursues pioneering research in the fields of sustainable design, digital mapping, green composites manufacturing, high-throughput computing, and proprietary software development. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Pamphlet Architecture 19 Reading/ Drawing/ Building (Princeton Architectural Press), AD’s Mapping in the Age of Digital Media, and Programming Cultures (Wiley and Sons).