Inviting atmospheres to the architecture table

In order to test this shift to the processual as well as architectural practice’s ability to design socialities, in this chapter I propose to think and work with a dynamic and seemingly intangible material: air. Although ignored throughout architectural history (Banham,1969) during the 1960’s and 1970’s there was a proliferation of inflatable structures that used air to explore the lightness, ephemerality, transparency and transportability of new plastics to propose new ways of living closer to the everyday, popular culture and political resistance (Dessauce, 1999; Topham, 2002). The project I discuss here, although sharing certain aesthetic qualities, was conceived differently. On the one hand, the Polivagina was not conceived as addressing air through its structural capacity, but on how its invisibility and dynamism destabilise architectural practice, requiring a transformation of methods, techniques, materials and social organizations. On the other hand, it acknowledges that the social is not the result of the inhabitation of inflatable structures; the air is already social. German philosoper and cultural theorist Peter Sloterdijk in his work on social foams (2005) proposes that sociality is not only about human exchanges of information (Wakeford, 2011), but is a foam that includes humans, structures, and the air and climate that brings them together. Then, taking the air into account in architecture shifts the attention beyond boundaries, such as walls and roofs, to what is in between them, working with humidity, pressure, smell, toxicity, and breath

Atmospheric Infrastructures to Deal with the Toxic Air in a Common World

Air pollution is making visible that we cannot take the air for granted, and the geoengineering projects that aim to clean it are not the solution. To claim the air as a global common might create a different type of awareness, and yet, what are the infrastructures needed to do so? After specifying how infrastructures and the commons might be imagined otherwise, the design, construction and encounters with the atmospheric infrastructure Yellow Dust will reveal how experimental infrastructures might not “solve the problem” of air pollution, but are opportunities to think on how to have a better air, as well as on how to (better) live in a shared world

Sensing Aeropolis. Urban air monitoring devices in Madrid, 2006-2010

Esta tesis examina las implicaciones técnicas, políticas y espaciales del aire urbano, y en concreto, de la calidad del aire, para tenerlo en cuenta desde una perspectiva arquitectónica. En oposición a formas de entender el aire como un vacío o como una metáfora, este proyecto propone abordarlo desde un acercamiento material y tecnológico, trayendo el entorno al primer plano y reconociendo sus múltiples agencias. Debido a la escasa bibliografía detectada en el campo de la arquitectura, el objetivo es construir un marco teórico-analítico para considerar el aire urbano. Para ello el trabajo construye Aeropolis, una metáfora heurística que describe el ensamblaje sociotecnico de la ciudad. Situada en la intersección de determinadas ramas de la filosofía de la cultura, los estudios sobre ciencia y tecnología y estudios feministas de la ciencia este nuevo paisaje conceptual ofrece una metodología y herramientas para abordar el objeto de estudio desde distintos ángulos. Estas herramientas metodológicas han sido desarrolladas en el contexto específico de Madrid, ciudad muy contaminada cuyo aire ha sido objeto de controversias políticas y sociales, y donde las políticas y tecnologías para reducir sus niveles no han sido exitosas. Para encontrar una implicación alternativa con el aire esta tesis propone un método de investigación de agentes invisibles a partir del análisis de sus dispositivos epistémicos. Se centra, en concreto, en los instrumentos que miden, visualizan y comunican la calidad del aire, proponiendo que no sólo lo representan, sino que son también instrumentos que diseñan el aire y la ciudad. La noción de “sensing” (en castellano medir y sentir) es expandida, reconociendo distintas prácticas que reconstruyen el aire de Madrid. El resultado de esta estrategia no es sólo la ampliación de los espacios desde los que relacionarnos con el aire, sino también la legitimación de prácticas existentes fuera de contextos científicos y administrativos, como por ejemplo prácticas relacionadas con el cuerpo, así como la redistribución de agencias entre más actores. Así, esta tesis trata sobre toxicidad, la Unión Europea, producción colaborativa, modelos de computación, dolores de cabeza, kits DIY, gases, cuerpos humanos, salas de control, sangre o políticos, entre otros. Los dispositivos que sirven de datos empíricos sirven como un ejemplo excepcional para investigar infraestructuras digitales, permitiendo desafiar nociones sobre Ciudades Inteligentes. La tesis pone especial atención en los efectos del aire en el espacio público, reconociendo los procesos de invisibilización que han sufrido sus infraestructuras de monitorización. Para terminar se exponen líneas de trabajo y oportunidades para la arquitectura y el diseño urbano a través de nuevas relaciones entre infraestructuras urbanas, el medio construido, espacios domésticos y públicos y humanos y no humanos, para crear nuevas ecologías políticas urbanas (queer). ABSTRACT This thesis examines the technical, political and spatial implications of urban air, and more specifically "air quality", in order to consider it from an architectural perspective. In opposition to understandings of the air either as a void or as a metaphor, this project proposes to inspect it from a material and technical approach, bringing the background to the fore and acknowledging its multiple agencies. Due to the scarce bibliography within the architectural field, its first aim is to construct a theoretical and analytical framework from which to consider urban air. For this purpose, the work attempts the construction of Aeropolis, a heuristic metaphor that describes the city's aero socio-material assemblage. Located at the intersection of certain currents in cultural philosophy, science and technology studies as well as feminist studies in technoscience, this framework enables a methodology and toolset to be extracted in order to approach the subject matter from different angles. The methodological tools stemming from this purpose-built framework were put to the test in a specific case study: Madrid, a highly polluted city whose air has been subject to political and social controversies, and where no effective policies or technologies have been successful in reducing its levels of pollution. In order to engage with the air, the thesis suggests a method for researching invisible agents by examining the epistemic devices involved. It locates and focuses on the instruments that sense, visualise and communicate urban air, claiming that they do not only represent it, but are also instruments that design the air and the city. The notion of "sensing" is then expanded by recognising different practices which enact the air in Madrid. The work claims that the result of this is not only the opening up of spaces for engagement but also the legitimisation of existing practices outside science and policymaking environments, such as embodied practices, as well as the redistribution of agency among more actors. So this is a thesis about toxicity, the European Union, collaborative production, scientific computational models, headaches, DIY kits, gases, human bodies, control rooms, blood, or politicians, among many others. The devices found throughout the work serve as an exceptional substrate for an investigation of digital infrastructures, enabling to challenge Smart City tropes. There is special attention paid to the effects of the air on the public space, acknowledging the silencing processes these infrastructures have been subjected to. Finally there is an outline of the opportunities arising for architecture and urban design when taking the air into account, to create new (queer) urban political ecologies between the air, urban infrastructures, the built environment, public and domestic spaces, and humans and more than humans

From extreme weather events to ‘cascading vulnerabilities’ : participatory flood research methodologies in Brazil during COVID-19

Extreme weather events are entangled with each other and with other extreme events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-racist protests, drought, a housing crisis, strikes, or climate emergencies, as well as with more general inadequacies due to national, economic, and political upheavals and accreted vulnerabilities from long-term policies or inactions. Effects of extreme weather events are intensified by ongoing social injustices like poverty and structural racism, a housing deficit, and the consequent informal and unplanned occupation of hazardous areas, such as riverbanks, and areas of previous social-environmental disasters. In the context of Brazil, the ongoing deforestation in the Amazon (agribusiness, mining and illegal wood) provoking droughts and energy shortages in the region creates further vulnerabilities that are felt globally. In this paper, our primary contribution to these inter-connected scenarios is to describe methodological interventions that were made in response to COVID-19, and to show how those changes provided new insights into vulnerability processes of both subjects and researchers. During a larger project (Waterproofing Data), focused on the case study research areas of São Paulo and Acre (Brazil) wherein our wider team conducted flood-risk community research, we were forced to rethink our approach. We moved away from the singularity of the flood event and its impacts toward acknowledging the cascading conditions of social vulnerability (caused by weather, health, social and political conditions). In this paper, we directly address the ‘cascade of vulnerabilities’ that the flood-prone communities already encounter when researchers seek to engage with them. We open new avenues to reconsider citizenship, space, and innovation in terms of the key challenges that our methods encountered when conducting participatory flood research methodologies, particularly during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to November 2021. Through flood research in Brazil, we articulate methodological contributions from the arts, humanities, and social sciences for more realistic, just, and caring research practices within and about weather in the context of ‘slow violence’ [Nixon, R (2013). Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP]

Data intimacies: building infrastructures for intensified embodied encounters with air pollution

The air is, in many urban contexts, polluted. Governments and institutions monitor particles and gas concentrations to better understand how they perform in the light of air quality guidance and legislation, and to make predictions in terms of future environmental health targets. The visibility of these data is considered crucial for citizens to manage their own health, and a proliferation of new informational forms and apps have been created to achieve this. And yet, beyond everyday decisions (when to use a mask or when to do sports outdoors), it is not clear whether current methods of engaging citizens produce behavioural change or stronger citizen engagement with air pollution. Drawing on the design, construction and ethnography of an urban infrastructure to measure, make visible and remediate particulate matter (PM2.5) through a water vapour cloud that we installed at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017, we examined the effects and affects of producing a public space that allows for physical interaction with data. In Yellow Dust, data from PM2.5 were translated into mist, the density of which was responsive to the number of particles suspended in the air. Data were made sense/ible by the changing conditions of the air surrounding the infrastructure, which can be experienced in embodied, collective and relational ways: what we call ‘molecular intimacies’. By reflecting on how the infrastructure facilitated new modes of sensing data, we consider how ‘data intimacies’ can re-specify action by producing different forms of engagement with air pollution

Political airs : from monitoring to attuned sensing air pollution

In Madrid, as in many European cities, air pollution is known about and made accountable through techno-scientific monitoring processes based on data, and the toxicity of the air is defined through epidemiological studies and made political through policy. In 2009, Madrid’s City Council changed the location of its air quality monitoring stations without notice, reducing the average pollution of the city and therefore provoking a public scandal. This scandal challenged the monitoring process, as the data that used to be the evidence of pollution could not be relied on anymore. To identify the characteristics of some of the diverse forms of public’s participation that emerged, I route theories of environmental sensing from STS and feminist theory through the notion of attuned sensing. Reading environmental sensing through the processual and orientational processes of attunement expands the ways in which toxicity can be sensed outside of quantitative data. This mode of sensing recognizes how the different spontaneous attunements to and with air pollution and the scandal acknowledged Madrid’s chemical infrastructure, rendering visible qualitative conditions of toxicity. This mode of sensing politicized the toxicity of the air not through management or policy making, nor only through established forms environmental activism, but through contagion and accumulation of the different forms of public participation. All together, they made air pollution a matter of public concern. They also redistributed the actors, practices and objects that make the toxicity not only knowable, but also accountable, and most importantly, they opened up spaces for citizen intervention

Urban heat mitigation by green and blue infrastructure: drivers, effectiveness, and future needs

The combination of urbanisation and global warming leads to urban overheating and compounds the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events due to climate change. Yet, the risk of urban overheating can be mitigated by urban green-blue-grey infrastructures (GBGI), such as parks, wetlands, and engineered greening, which have the potential to effectively reduce summer air temperatures. Despite many reviews, the evidence bases on quantified GBGI cooling benefits remains partial and the practical recommendations for implementation are unclear. This systematic literature review synthesises the evidence base for heat mitigation and related co-benefits, identifies knowledge gaps, and proposes recommendations for their implementation to maximise their benefits. After screening 27,486 papers, 202 were reviewed, based on 51 GBGI types categorised under 10 main divisions. Certain GBGI (green walls, parks, street trees) have been well-researched for their urban cooling capabilities. However, several other GBGI have received negligible (zoological garden, golf course, estuary) or minimal (private garden, allotment) attention. The most efficient air cooling was observed in botanical gardens (5.0±3.5°C), wetlands (4.9±3.2°C), green walls (4.1±4.2°C), street trees (3.8±3.1°C), and vegetated balconies (3.8±2.7°C). Under changing climate conditions (2070-2100) with consideration of RCP8.5, there is a shift in climate subtypes, either within the same climate zone (e.g., Dfa to Dfb and Cfb to Cfa) or across other climate zones (e.g., Dfb (continental warm-summer humid) to BSk (dry, cold semi-arid) and Cwa (temperate) to Am (tropical)). These shifts may result in lower efficiency for the current GBGI in the future. Given the importance of multiple services, it is crucial to balance their functionality, cooling performance, and other related co-benefits when planning for the future GBGI. This global GBGI heat mitigation inventory can assist policymakers and urban planners in prioritising effective interventions to reduce the risk of urban overheating, filling research gaps, and promoting community resilience

Dialogic data innovations for sustainability transformations and flood resilience: the case for waterproofing data

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and have increasing impacts, which disproportionately affect marginalised and impoverished communities. This article proposes and assesses a new methodological approach for developing innovative solutions based on urban data analytics to address sustainability challenges in light of changing climate conditions. The approach draws inspiration from Paulo Freire's dialogic pedagogy and has been implemented in the international transdisciplinary project “Waterproofing Data”, with multiple study sites in Brazil. The project has introduced three methodological interventions: making data practices visible, engaging citizens and communities with data, and sharing data stories. Our study demonstrates that these methods have expanded the types of data used in flood risk management and have engaged a wider range of social groups in the generation, circulation, and utilization of data. We present a framework that provides guidance about the ways in which data innovations can contribute to transformative change, aiming to ensure that future development trajectories are just, inclusive, and equitable. The findings provide evidence that our approach not only helps fill existing data gaps and promote more equitable flood risk governance but also democratises decision-making in climate adaptation. Citizens were empowered to take proactive measures to improve resilience to disaster risks, thereby saving lives and safeguarding livelihoods

The role of data in transformations to sustainability : a critical research agenda

This article investigates the role of digital technologies and data innovations, such as big data and citizen-generated data, to enable transformations to sustainability. We reviewed recent literature in this area and identified that the most prevailing assumption of work is related to the capacity of data to inform decision-making and support transformations. However, there is a lack of critical investigation on the concrete pathways for this to happen. We present a framework that identifies scales and potential pathways on how data generation, circulation and usage can enable transformations to sustainability. This framework expands the perspective on the role and functions of data, and it is used to outline a critical research agenda for future work that fully considers the socio-cultural contexts and practices through which data may effectively support transformative pathways to sustainable development