Master in Robotics & Advanced Construction Second Year 2019/21
Workshop Name:  Cosmogrammes – Dealing with Complexity in the Age of Anthropocene 
Faculty: Mireia Luzárraga

Credits: Cosmogramme on zero waste. M. Bonvehí, N. Oliver, M. Solà, M. Vallès / Teacher: Mireia Luzárraga

The scope of architecture nowadays goes beyond the interest in light, space, aesthetics and composition. Affairs such as climate change, the oil crisis and the beginning of Anthropocene require architects to include a wider range of parameters into the design and construction processes, in a scenario where architecture is responsible for 80% of the CO2 emissions.

A great diversity of agents (climatic, regulations, technological, institutional, ecological, molecular, human, non-human…), controversies and the relationship between them take part in the contemporaneous architectural practice. 

The media that we are going to use in order to map this complexity will be a Cosmogramme which is a graphic visual representation of the controversies, agents and information that take part on a certain topic, that can unveil relationships that we are not used to connect otherwise. A cosmogramme can also host a multiplicity of graphic information such as images, texts, arrows, news, drawings and more.

Credits: Cosmogramme on Accelerationism / J. Marsol, D. Bonpart / Teacher: Mireia Luzárraga.

Learning Objectives

At course completion the student will:
– have an approach to the contemporaneous ecology thinking
– read and understand a complex system that calls a multiplicity of agents.
– use design as a tool for creating a healthier, more inclusive environment, taking into account many different inputs.