Anthropocene Epoch, unofficial interval of geologic time, making up the third worldwide division of the Quaternary Period (2.6 million years ago to the present), characterized as the time in which the collective activities of human beings (Homo sapiens) began to substantially alter Earth’s surface, atmosphere, oceans, and systems of nutrient cycling. A growing group of scientists argue that the Anthropocene Epoch should follow the Holocene Epoch (11,700 years ago to the present) and begin in the year 1950. The name Anthropocene is derived from Greek and means the “recent age of (hu)man.” https://www.britannica.com/science/Anthropocene-Epoch
A new era has risen, where the geo/biosphere undergoes irreversible transformations, so that it is valid to discuss about a crisis with permanent consequences. Human activity consists of the major cause of most of the current environmental changes (Apostolopoulos 2019). The irreversibility of the situation confronts humans to realise that (a) the focus to preserve may no longer be on the restoration of the past ecosystems, since this is in many cases impossible; (b) it does not suffice to manage natural and human systems separately from each other (Martin et al. 2014). In other words, time does not turn backwards, whereas to grant a future for humanity on earth requires that we as humans reconsider our actions and overall presence as equals with all other ones sharing the same planet.
Technological progress, despite the fact that it has often been accused as “Technological Hubris” (Casagrande et al. 2017) linked with the destiny of human to prevail upon nature, in this present case it is proposed as an ally, first for an in-depth understanding of the geophysical cycles, then for the development of methods and plans for action so that drastic changes even ruptures of these cycles are prevented. It is noted that such incidents are so-called as natural disasters, an indication that fails to describe that these are nothing else than natural system’s shifting towards a new balance point. It is proposed to raise nature’s cycles and functions for any system and size range at the top of the hierarchy of significances, a position that human has seized and occupied until now. Technology as any other human activity assumes a moral dimension as responsibility of which Anthropocene it is to be (Ellis & Trachtenberg 2014).
Post-Anthropocene, or a new vision for architecture
Alternative paradigms and directions are considered for architecture, aside from its conventional role to fulfil daily human living, as informed responses to the observed eco-socio-political challenges about our future. These may emerge from the pair nature/technology, an alliance that may support protocols and strategies of equal cohabitation and co-living for all earth members humans and non-humans alike, and beyond the human-centered model that currently represents the western model of thought.
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Yannis Zavoleas, lecture at Trigger Wednesdays series, 2 December 2020, University of Ioannina (in Greek):
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Yannis Zavoleas, lecture with Marie Davidova at CAADRIA 2020 conference RE: Anthropocene: Design in the Age of Humans, 6 August 2020, Bangkok, Tailand:
Post-Anthropocene: The Design after the Human Centered Design Age
YANNIS ZAVOLEAS 