Publication Date
Summer 2021
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Title
Architekturwissenschaft. Vom Suffix zur Agenda
Conference Location
Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin
Volume
5
DOI
10.14279/depositonce-11388
First Page
174
Last Page
189
Abstract
This paper re-examines the meanings and origins of ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ architecture, focusing on the discourses of radical ecology, particularly as these emerged in the work of California architect, Sim Van der Ryn. Known as one of the founders in the late 1960s of ecological design practice, Sim Van der Ryn embraced the full range of meanings attached the term, ‘ecology’, which cannot be reduced to ‘science’ in the biological or geo-physical senses. Following various strands of ecological thinking within the California counterculture, Van der Ryn proposed an epistemological break with architectural knowledge as specialized technique or ‘technê’, particularly as architectural modernists had imagined this knowledge as an extension of rational-industrial society.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Art and Art History
Recommended Citation
Anthony Raynsford. "Ecology as Architekturwissenschaft: Sim Van der Ryn and the ‘Soft Science’ of Radical Design" Architekturwissenschaft. Vom Suffix zur Agenda (2021): 174-189. https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-11388
