Architecture in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Design, Deep Time, Science and Philosophy

edited by Etienne Turpin

Research regarding the significance and consequence of anthropogenic transformations of the earth’s land, oceans, biosphere and climate have demonstrated that, from a wide variety of perspectives, it is very likely that humans have initiated a new geological epoch, their own. First labeled the Anthropocene by the chemist Paul Crutzen, the consideration of the merits of the Anthropocene thesis by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and the International Union of Geological Sciences has also garnered the attention of philosophers, historians, and legal scholars, as well as an increasing number of researchers from a range of scientific backgrounds. Architecture in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Design, Deep Time, Science and Philosophy intensifies the potential of this multidisciplinary discourse by bringing together essays, conversations, and design proposals that respond to the “geological imperative” for contemporary architecture scholarship and practice. Contributors include Nabil Ahmed, Meghan Archer, Adam Bobbette, Emily Cheng, Heather Davis, Sara Dean, Seth Denizen, Mark Dorrian, Elizabeth Grosz, Lisa Hirmer, Jane Hutton, Eleanor Kaufman, Amy Catania Kulper, Clinton Langevin, Michael C.C. Lin, Amy Norris, John Palmesino, Chester Rennie, François Roche, Ann-Sofi Rönnskog, Isabelle Stengers, Paulo Tavares, Etienne Turpin, Eyal Weizman, Jane Wolff, Guy Zimmerman.

“Although architecture has a sense of its place within broader socio-political and cultural systems, it has not, until very recently, acknowledged itself as part of the earth’s geology, despite the fact that it is a forceful geological agent, digging up, mobilizing, transforming and transporting earth materials, water, air and energy in unparalleled ways. With the Anthropocene thesis, architecture is called to think itself as a geological actor capable of radically transforming the earth’s atmosphere, surface morphology, and future stratigraphy. This extraordinary and provocative collection of essays, design projects, and conversations plots out what the geological discourse of the Anthropocene might mean for architecture, architectural theory, and design practice.”
Lindsay Bremner – Director of Architectural Research, University of Westminster
“The ground on which we stand—physically, conceptually, even ontologically—is becoming increasingly unstable. The same goes for our political, scientific, and planetary atmospheres. The histories of “civilisation” and “nature” are crossing paths. But how to live up to the transformation called the Anthropocene? Vectors of critical thought that align planetary politics with questions of the planning, organization, the design of physical space and the making of environments have become urgent. This volume brings leading and emerging scholars and design practitioners together, allowing the most exciting edges of new research to speak to each other. It is a major contribution to an emerging field of study and will shape the direction of the expanded field in architectural and spatial research.”
Anselm Franke – Head of Visual Arts and Film Department, Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Editor Bio

Anna-Sophie Springer, PhD, is a cultural theorist, educator, curator, and publisher whose work weaves artistic practice, environmental humanities, and the histories of science and collecting. Through exhibitions, books, and public programs, she explores how knowledge practices shape cultural imaginaries, ethical responsibilities, and struggles for ecological justice. As co-founder and director of the K. Verlag, an award-winning publishing atelier in Berlin, she develops books as multidimensional sites of collective thinking. She is also the Principal Co-Investigator, with Dr. Etienne Turpin, of Reassembling the Natural, an international exhibition-led inquiry on the role of natural history collections in the Anthropocene, co-editor of the intercalations: paginated exhibitions series and Fantasies of the Library (MIT Press, 2016), and author of Inter folia aves (Greylock, 2024). She completed her PhD, Species of Accumulation and the Necromass of Natural History, at the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths, University of London. Since 2023, she has been a professor of Transformation Design at the Institute for Design Research, HBK Braunschweig.

Etienne Turpin, PhD, is a philosopher and the general editor with K. Verlag. He also co-edits several series for the publishing atelier, including Processing Process and Pensées soignées; previously, he co-edited the intercalations: paginated exhibition series (2014–25), published by K. Verlag and Haus der Kulturen der Welt in the context of Das Anthropozän-Projekt. Etienne has co-edited several other publications, including The Work of Wind: Sea (K. Verlag, 2025), The Work of Wind: Land (K. Verlag, 2018), Fantasies of the Library (MIT Press, 2016), Art in the Anthropocene (Open Humanities Press, 2015), and Jakarta: Architecture + Adaptation (Universitas Indonesia Press, 2013); he also edited Architecture in the Anthropocene (Open Humanities Press, 2013), based on the landmark design research symposium, The Geologic Turn, which he organized at the University of Michigan.