Deep Adaptation - The Spatial Dimension

The future, which we thought we had maybe another decade to prepare for, is now suddenly here. In all likelihood, we can expect further crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic or of similar severity, especially in the context of climate change. They will render the 21st century radically different from the 20th: conventions, techniques, and social practices we are familiar with will disappear. Our responsibilities and roles as architects and urban planners will also change fundamentally in this process. We will work in increasingly volatile and vulnerable contexts and constellations. Until now, many actors in politics, but also in academia and research, have played down or denied the vulnerability of our urban structures to the risks that are the direct effects of our current way of life. In the search for alternative and, in a sense, more realistic perspectives, Jem Bendell’s concept of “Deep Adaptation”, which has been widely and controversially discussed since its first publication in 2018, calls for a shift: he urges us to prepare for the collapse of certain systems that currently govern our lives – and to see this as an opportunity for positive change. This change and the resulting challenges we are facing are primarily not technological, but above all social, economic, and organisational in nature. Moreover, they are highly interdependent and all-encompassing; they require systemic change, profound transformations, and adaptations of action. It is therefore not a question of developing technical solutions in isolation, but rather of fundamentally rethinking the way we live, operate, work, travel, and interact. This issue of SPOOL seeks to explore the spatial dimension of the Deep Adaptation concept and how it can be put to use in the spatial disciplines such as urban planning, landscape planning, urban design, and architecture

It’s too late for pessimism: How the Deep Adaptation Agenda is relevant for teaching in the spatial disciplines

The crises we face today call for a careful assessment of our collective and individual understandings and responses. The past decades have shown us that acknowledgement of the emergencies alone is not sufficient to address the problems, especially within the complex context and conditions of the built environment. In the face of ‘inevitable’ change, and of current and future challenges, this urges us to direct a critical glance towards how we understand and frame the problems as spatial practitioners, how we position ourselves towards them, and how our ethical and professional responsibilities and agencies must change. As an open question and a long-term endeavour, this echoes within the context of academia. However, a central position has yet to emerge. In this article, we give an account of our experiences by taking a closer look at the approaches, formats, and method we have employed at the Professorship of Urban Design at TU Munich and elaborate on how these concerns can be embedded in the content, systems, and structures of teaching, and how the Deep Adaptation Agenda plays a facilitating role in this ongoing attempt

Constructing Communities of Tacit Knowledge: Political Commitment and Urban Planning in Postwar Milan

Exploring historical models of the construction of communities of tacit knowledge, this paper examines the contribution of leftist practitioners to Milanese postwar planning culture focusing on the communist architectural collective Collettivo di Architettura. During the reconstruction period, Milan underwent significant economic, social, and territorial transformations that intensified the divide between the city center and the periphery. The Milanese outskirts were left to speculation, rapid urbanization, and high migration rates without adequate planning tools and policies. In this context, leftist practitioners sought to address the problems affecting the Milanese periphery and wanted to contribute to their resolution. Among them, Collettivo di Architettura stood out for its explicit political stance and extensive contribution. Its members attributed social and political dimensions to architectural work and integrated collaborative ways of working and political militancy into their practice. During the 1950s, they provided free professional support in the Milanese periphery in addition to their architectural practice: as urbanista condotto, they assisted municipalities that lacked adequate planning tools and knowledge and initiated discussions with local authorities, institutions, and economic operators concerning urban development. As a result, procedures, strategies, and processes were collectively developed to establish effective planning methods and improve living conditions in the Milanese outskirts. By explicitly drawing from the Gramscian concept of the organic intellectual and the example of other committed practitioners of their time, the engagement of Collettivo’s members provided the basis for a shared planning culture. Thus, this case study highlights the significance of political commitment in generating collaborative communities of tacit knowledge

Field-Urbanism: Reconstructing Agency of Architecture in Milan’s Coree

Research highlights The majority of buildings are not designed by architects, but are the result of processes and decisions that involve multiple actors (construction regulations, technical and industrial innovations, social norms, and practices). Does that mean that building practices without architects are more successful in satisfying the needs of users? What are the reasons for their success? Could architects learn from these alternative approaches to building design? This paper addresses these questions by examining the case study of coree, self-constructed settlements built on the outskirts of Milan between the 1950s and 1960s, focusing on the corea of Cerchiarello in Pero. By analysing the formal and spatial features of Cerchiarello, contextualised in the historical, economic, and social frameworks that generated it, the qualities of coree building practices will be examined. Accordingly, the working methods and the protagonists behind the genesis, consolidation, and evolution of the corea of Cerchiarello will be reconstructed and examined. The hypothesis of this study is that architectural research and practice should consider non-authorial and co-produced architecture as relevant as “high” architecture because it has its own methods and characteristics, whereby it can adapt to the changing needs of its inhabitants and thus reinvent itself. Therefore, the investigation of the methods and processes of coree should increase understanding of post-World War II Milanese architecture, and contribute to the development of practices aimed at making the urban fabric adaptable

Collaborations: Rethinking Architectural Design

»Collaborations: Rethinking Architectural Design« - issue 05 of Dimensions, Journal of Architectural Knowledge - explores the impact of collaboration on architectural design processes, considering the conditions and implications of their integration into practice and discourse. The issue includes contributions and visual essays as reports from teaching activities, realized or planned architectural projects, theoretical reflections on the topic, and the critical depiction of case studies, all of which concur to the definition of new roles and modes of practice, addressing the significance of collaborations in architectural design