Cosmopolitical bodies: An architecture of space

摘要

The project of 'Cosmopolitical Bodies: An Architecture of Space' is a design research project, where the relationship between Space exploration and its ideals, architecture and the environment are reimagined within the complexities of our planet's ecosystem. Tools of image production and architectural propositions are employed to argue that the encounter between people and the planet should be recomposed to form new alliances with nature; cosmopolitical bodies. The research is loosely divided into two parts, research into prevailing imaginations of space and their counter-arguments and implications for creative practice; and a speculative design thesis titled 'Dandal Kura' exploring the potentials of space technologies on Earth. Based upon research around multispecies theory and critiques of scientific practice, the research does not propose a human agent being replaced by the environmental agent; but a balance or symbiosis of living, living with nature. Both real and imagined space exploration's influence on (ecological) architecture has historically been seen as an exercise in escaping environmental crisis and reinforcing dominant political narratives. In this context, an alternative imagination of space is considered to propose new architectures. An imagination of space that reflects multiplicities, is arguably female, and considers an ecological architecture that confronts the complexity of the social, environmental and political systems of the planet we inhabit; proposing ideas of settling and caring as alternatives to the mastery of nature. The project consists of a critique on the closed system conceptions of nature produced through imaginations of space exploration and locates Lake Chad as an 'Earth site' to test scales of ecological architectures: from the planetary system of the Lake as seen from space, to the microbiology of life-sustaining algaes growing in the wadis. The Lake Chad design project takes the name of Dandul Kura (meeting place) and speculates on the impact of series of interventions where space technologies allow women's cooperatives around Lake Chad to adapt with climate change. Through the intersection of scientific and indigenous knowledge, the project of Dandul Kura proposes that space technologies can become an emancipatory tool in the context of climatic crisis. The design proposal is conveyed through a series of images, reimagining modes of living in Lake Chad in this context of climate change and economic and environmental scarcity.