EcoRedux 02: Design Manuals for a Dying Planet

EcoRedux 02, the fourth temporary exhibition of FABRICATION LABORATORY, assembles a genealogy of ecological material experiments that underground architectural groups conducted in the 1960s and 1970s. The research project, presented in form of an historic archive, documents a larger disciplinary transformation, reflecting the intense socio-political concerns of the time and the collective fantasising about how small technologies can become remedial tools to save the planet.

In parallel with the presentation of this archive, EcoRedux 02 explores the contemporary resurgence of ecological strategies in architectural imagination: it features new interpretations of the historical material in the form of diagrams, drawings, animations, fabrication prototypes and instructions manuals. Overall, EcoRedux 02 seeks tentative connections with an ‘elastic’ understanding of ecology, in a time when the term addressed not only ‘new naturalism’ and techno-scientific standards, but also systems theory: a recirculatory understanding of the world and its resources.

The exhibition aims to cast light on current perceptions of sustainable design practices by depicting a shift from object - photovoltaic cells, solar panels, recycling devices, etc. - to method - a process-based understanding of materials, fabrication techniques and an opportunistic field of adhoc ecology, for specific local needs, places and purposes. More information at www.ecoredux.com.

Curated and designed by Lydia Kallipoliti in collaboration with Anna Pla Català.