The Air From Other Planets
The greatest challenge facing architecture and our broader society today is the need for advancements in harnessing energy. Rather than continue to tie a discussion of energy to conservation and efficiency the architect must instead look to provide novel shapes, aesthetics and organizational strategies as energy emerges as a building material much like concrete, steel and glass before it. In this role, energy can be used to inspire and pressure the public to demand the technologies and breakthroughs needed to develop more clean energy. Without this fundamental rethinking between architecture and energy, both will remain to be seen as distinct; architecture as a building of walls and energy as a fuel for filling it. Instead, architecture is at a unique and adventurous stage for questioning and re-informing our definitions of architecture and the environments and lifestyles they foster.