Hidden Infrastructures

As the world bolts towards a circular economy of information (data), economic, political, and material exchange, the ‘Hidden Infrastructures’ thesis studio is to promote a larger awareness of the interconnected activities that impact the material (hard goods and soft goods) and technical exchange of trade for our built environment.

Hidden infrastructures – digital and fossil fuel – and its deleterious effects on the environment are easy to hide when they are at the bottom of the ocean, but much harder when the infrastructure is part of our cities, part of our urban experience. Yet this is precisely what both oil and tech industries have long sought to do, frequently via architectural means.

Developmental topics that explore broader topics hitting humanities and social sciences, such as ethical trade routes and policies of materiality, to engage with interdisciplinary and cross-cultural topics that question policy challenges facing “democracies” in the 21st century will be the focus.

Building materials in architecture have a significant impact on our world of construction. Trade and material exchange are key to understanding the impact that works in line with climate changes, and economic growth. Are there ways to incorporate alternative building vernaculars by analyzing our past?

Research will be targeted on the ongoing urban and architectural effects of concerns of geopolitics related to the issue of oil/data. Prioritizing the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals students will redefine the impact and contribution to the field/discourse through the lens that affects us all, in a world after oil.

Lectures and field trips will tackle groundbreaking topics to assist students on the research of their projects, that will provoke ecologically fascinating discussions that affect the larger repercussions on the development of ‘hidden infrastructures’ in the future of our earth.