1/ CONTEXT

The last few decades have confirmed the evidence of a striking change of paradigms in the
definition of our spaces of relation, interaction and sociability. These transformations are
intimately associated with the current and accelerated growth of the technological capacity to
process information, increase communication and multiply differential definitions of our
environment(s).
This paradigm shift reverberates with a new ecological condition inaugurating a climatic regime
that demands specific investigation. The term “investigation” comes from the Latin investigare,
which derives from vestigium, meaning fingerprint. On the one hand, to investigate is equivalent
to “going in pursuit of the fingerprint of something”, that is to say, “to go after the track of
something” in order to discover it. On the other hand, to investigate also means to explore an
uncertain epistemological domain in order to increase the field of knowledge on a certain matter.
This seminar will critically approach the notion of “Ecology” through 7 sessions that combine
architectural projects and philosophical and sociological readings. The aim of this
transdisciplinary approach is to understand the practice of architecture as a cartographical
endeavour in which forces coming from different disciplines meet and collide, particularly under
the notion of “Ecology”.

2/ OBJECTIVES

1. To ramify the notion of Ecology according to the various branches provided by
contemporaneous thinking while understanding its architectural conjugations.
2. Identify an intellectual debate and build a position in relation to it.
3. Practice the art of the debate in a community with different positions.
4. Expose this position with clarity and precision.
5. Synthesize the lessons learned within ecological texts and debate with case studies

3/ FACULTY

Jordi Vivaldi is a writer, philosopher and architectural theorist based in Vienna.
PhD Architect (IOUD, Austria) and PhD Philosopher cand. (EGS, Switzerland), Jordi is the
author of the forthcoming book In-Limit. Space, Agency and a Xenological Tale (Actar
Publishers, 2021). His areas of research include 20th and 21st century’s theory of experimental
architecture, art and technology, as well as various forms of Speculative Realism and New
Materialism. His current field of investigation orbits around the notion of “limit” together with
associated terms such as “finitude”, “determination” and “reduction”, both in its philosophical
and architectural registers.
Jordi’s philosophical work applies Eugenio Trias’ notion of limit into Graham Harman’s
Object-Oriented Philosophy in order to construct a metaphysical theory of limits that is both
com-pressive and ex-pressive. From an architectural perspective, Jordi’s research focuses on
articulating the concept of limit as a contemporaneous form of habitational space associated
with the xenological condition.
Jordi is currently working as theory faculty and researcher in several international universities
such as IaaC in Barcelona, Bartlett in London, IOUD in Innsbruck and PROPUR in Buenos
Aires. Besides his curatorial tasks as editor in chief of the architectural magazine IaaC Bits, his
work has crystallized in several articles, essays and lectures. Jordi is also the co-author of the
book The Threefold Logic of Advanced Architecture (Barcelona: Actar Publishers, 2020).

www.jordivivaldi.com