AR Ecologies: building with trees

The Architectural Review is joined in this episode of the AR Ecologies by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, as we follow the research of CCA's ‘How to: do no harm’ residency, curated by Lev Bratishenko and Charlotte Malterre-Barthes. AR host Ellen Peirson looks at the harm that architects do to land, cities, materials and workers. Stories from Sahar Shah, Guujaaw, Sename Koffi Agbodjinou and Jess Myers weave together an honest argument about how harmful it is to exist in this ecological age. Once we acknowledge that we can’t create without extracting, we can start transforming our ways of working to make them regenerative. From the oil pipelines snaking through Canada, the search for an architectural identity in the globalising cities in Togo, the labour organising happening in classrooms and workplaces and the unceded lands of the Haida Nation in British Columbia, these truths hurt. Architects want to find new ways to practise architecture on this scarred planet. To do no harm. But is this possible? AR Ecologies, a podcast by the Architectural Review, explores the tension between architecture and ecology through critical positions which launch each chapter. Instead of standalone interviews, each episode weaves curious and critical voices together to meet, discuss and give space to perspectives outside an architectural orbit. This episode is an audio counterpart to our October 2022 issue on Energy, while the first season revolved around trees, an audio counterpart to our October 2021 issue on Trees. The publication that was produced during the ‘How to do no harm residency’ in September can be found here, and the transcript for this podcast can be found here.

The Architectural Review is joined in this episode by the Canadian Centre for Architecture. On our bookshelf in this chapter is the CCA's CP138 Gordon Matta-Clark: Readings of the archive by Yann Chateigné, Kitty Scott and Hila Peleg, co-published with Koenig Books in July 2020. This episode dwells on the peripheries of Matta-Clark's work – in his library, his travel snaps, and his discarded film footage – to reveal the value that hides in the margins and on the cutting room floor: our future on this planet could depend on it. Guests include Francesco Garutti (Curator of Contemporary Architecture, CCA), Yann Chateigné (curator and writer), Kitty Scott (Deputy Director and Chief Curator, National Gallery of Canada) and Laura Phipps (Assistant Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art). In collaboration with the CCA, we have carefully selected from their recent and upcoming publications to place on our bookshelf, to tell their stories, and reach outside their pages, taking them for a walk. CP138 Gordon Matta-Clark: Readings of the archive is the culmination of three exhibitions held at the CCA between June 2019 and September last year that were part of the CCA’s continued Out of the Box series. The exhibition series is now being expanded through a new instalment, created in dialogue with the Generali Foundation Collection and on view until 6 March at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. The book is available to purchase at the CCA's online store now.

Completing the tree-filled trilogy, the AR turns to focus on timber, our fundamental link between trees and architecture. Timber, especially mass timber - is seen to be one of the most ecologically sustainable building materials and an obvious alternative in construction. But when a virtuous material is used to replicate capitalist models, the result can exacerbate, rather than counter the climate catastrophe. Scientist Suzanne Simard, architecture historian Erin Putalik and engineer Maria Smith share their projects, voices and perspectives on how we see, build and ultimately grow trees to operate in the same world that preserves and produces this essential building block of our existence. Hosted by Sabrina Syed. AR Ecologies, a podcast by The Architectural Review, explores the tension between architecture and ecology through critical positions. Instead of standalone interviews, each episode weaves curious and critical voices together to meet, discuss and give space to perspectives outside an architectural orbit. The first series revolves around trees, an audio counterpart to the AR October 2021 issue, available now.

Can designing with trees result in more than just salad garnish? In the second episode of AR Ecologies, the conversation unpicks architects' obsession with trees in order to progress beyond superficial greenwashing. Scientist Suzanne Simard, architect Paulo Tavares and engineer Maria Smith get below the roots to reveal how to design for trees to thrive, not perform. Hosted by Sabrina Syed.  AR Ecologies, a podcast by The Architectural Review, explores the tension between architecture and ecology through critical positions. Instead of standalone interviews, each episode weaves curious and critical voices together to meet, discuss and give space to perspectives outside an architectural orbit. The first series revolves around trees, an audio counterpart to the AR October 2021 issue, available now.

In the first episode of the AR Ecologies series, the ecological silver bullet of planting trees is put under scrutiny. From Amazonia to London, planting and its colonial history is unravelled by different voices, including photographer Sebastião Salgado, scientist Suzanne Simard, research director at human rights organisation Survival International Fiona Watson, architect Paulo Tavares and engineer Maria Smith. Hosted by Sabrina Syed. AR Ecologies, a podcast by The Architectural Review, explores the tension between architecture and ecology through critical positions. Instead of standalone interviews, each episode weaves curious and critical voices together to meet, discuss and give space to perspectives outside an architectural orbit. The first series revolves around trees, an audio counterpart to the AR October 2021 issue, available now.

This episode features In praise of darkness, a waning reserve by Sigri Sandberg, published in AR April 2020. We chose to revisit this piece, which we published as the keynote for the Darkness issue nearly 18 months ago, as this week we mark the launch of our Light issue. With the Darkness issue we explored how darkness is a critical resource that is increasingly endangered, where shadows can be sites of subversion in a culture of ever-increasing surveillance. With our September 2021 issue, we flip the switch to consider access to light as a right that is unevenly distributed, continuing political questions of visibility and invisibility, and exploring connections between light and safety, between energy and technology. Find out more about the Light issue here: https://www.architectural-review.com/magazines/ar-september-2021-light 

This episode features a piece by Peter Buchanan which asks whether early acclaim for an architect can be a handicap – or even the kiss of death? We’re revisiting this piece now as our July/August issue features the work of Enric Miralles (1955 - 2000) in our Reputations column, who, as a believer in designing through making, left a vast archive of drawings and models. This essay looks at the architects once heralded as rising stars who have seen their work descend into caricature and recycled motifs. The original piece can be read here: https://www.architectural-review.com/architects/emerging-architects/can-early-acclaim-for-an-architect-be-a-handicap-even-the-kiss-of-death 

With the publication of our Collage + AR New into Old issue, we return to an essay by Douglas Murphy on Cedric Price, published as part of an issue on adaptive reuse, picking up on the ideas of adaptability, indeterminacy, and progress that underlie Price’s work.  The AR New into Old awards celebrate the creative ways buildings are adapted and remodelled to welcome contemporary uses. This year, we will be hosting the winner of the 2021 awards, ZAV architects, in an online event celebrating their project Farsh Film Studio, and discussing adaptive reuse as a type of architectural intervention. The event is on 19 July and will be free to attend – register here: https://www.architectural-review.com/events/join-us-in-conversation-with-zav-architects-on-19-july

This episode features an essay by Carlos Quintáns called Make do and mend, published in AR December 2019/January 2020 issue on Preservation. The essay looks at how practices of persistent upkeep in Burkina Faso are themselves a piece of heritage that must be maintained. We’re revisiting this piece now as we publish our June issue on Waste where we confront the life cycles of materials, objects and spaces.

Harnessing failure: on this Earth Day, we have chosen to revisit this essay Keller Easterling wrote for our Failure issue, published in February 2019, about the catastrophic failures of our contemporary world, from climate crisis to financial crashes to the apparent inability of global infrastructures of space to adequately accommodate refugees. In the face of such failure at such scale, Easterling sets forth a question of new possible ecologies to make use of a broken system.