Confronting Carbon Form

A new spatial order was born in the fossil fuel age: new building typologies and urban archetypes emerged to meet the demands of a new economy while unprecedented mobility fundamentally changed human perception of space. From the steam engine onward, these architectural and urban configurations—which could be referred to as carbon form—have enmeshed the cultural, economic, and political aspects of social life within an energy-intensive network of space and form. They are also the spatial roots of the climate crisis. 
 
This exhibition is dedicated to the study of carbon form. Central to this work is the premise that the spatial building blocks of an extractive economy remain unchallenged, despite permutations in architectural discourse over the past two centuries, and despite advancements in building technology. The proliferation of carbon form continues unabated, revealing that at the core of the climate crisis, there is a spatial problem. 
 
Confronting Carbon Form repositions architecture’s relationship to energy within a spatial and formal discourse, arguing that alternatives will remain unlikely until we better understand the nature of carbon form and how it came into being. Featuring original works by Elisa Iturbe, Stanley Cho, and Alican Taylan, the exhibition looks to history and precedent to confront the urban archetypes, building typologies, and spatial concepts that must now be supplanted and transformed, an undertaking that is just as important for understanding architecture’s complicity in the climate crisis as it is for locating fruitful terrain for climate action. 

 

The daily spatial footprint of a rural inhabitant, shown within the context of regional production patterns near Iowa Falls, Iowa.
Cuando
21 de marzo hasta el 16 de abril, 2023
Donde
The Cooper Union, Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery
7 East 7th Street
10003 New York, NY, USA
Organizador
The Cooper Union
Enlace
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