Minor Civilizations
Life Engineering
Architectural Association, Diploma Unit 14
London, United Kingdom
2002-2003
Professors: Ciro Najle, Hanif Kara
Lecturers and Collaborators: Christian
Hutter Blueml, Roberto Bogani, Sergio Forster, Gabriela Cárdenas, Michael Hensel,
Ludo Grooteman
Consultants: Reuben Brambleby, Jessica Brew, Susan Mantle, Paul Scott
Students: Carol Aoun, Homin Kim, Hikaru Kitai, Raymond Lau, Leonidas Lazarakis, Jaihyuk Lee, Kevin Lim, Nazila Maghzian, Karoline Markus, Harry Paticas, Tom Raymont, Paul La Tourelle, Asako Uchiyama
Minor Civilizations pursues the engineering of minor material civilizations in South America. The research focuses on self-organized social and territorial processes that incubate minor civilizations: systems of latent power and intense social dynamics that develop pockets of hidden material intelligence, capable to locally transform the impact of globalization through their organizational and material richness.
The investigation endeavours to intensify material routines and steer the forces of local culture as a sieve to the actualization of global processes. Proposals are developed as regimes of multiple levels: urban projects, material prototypes, territorial systems. New architectural lineages are generated through the engineering of models of material and structural differentiation, constructed as weapons of social, environmental, and economic transformation.
