143 Of course, a particular social sensitivity cannot be expected in an emirate; however, it suggests that the pursuit of environmental sustainability objectives, i.e. linked to a life perspective, may translate into its opposite, namely into the ossification of a condition. In fact, most sustainable strategies seem to be heading in a conservative direction. Reduce-reuse-recycle, insulation, circular economy, zero kilometre, permaculture, zero emissions, speak of a time suspended into the cyclicity of the present, of a continuous and inevitable repetition of procedures validated in their neutrality, of a control extended from the productive dimension to the social one of consumption, of anathema against the dissipative character of hedonism, but also of research and of every transformative process: that is, of every project. A chilling prospect, however, for the senile and fat affluent societies, which should barter many of their freedoms for a future (hopefully?) increasingly equal to their wealthy present, and even less palatable for the multitudes of desperate people who try to escape from conditions of life already very harsh. Can architecture significantly intervene on such vast and complex issues? On the one hand, as operators in a sector – that of construction – which amounts about a third of the total carbon dioxide emissions, we feel a strong responsibility. On the other hand, we should know that, as architects, our impact on reality is quantitatively limited and our role, consequently, is more exemplary and representative and, at the same time, experimental and mutagenic. At our best, we make sure that time and society, and fears and desires they express, are reflected in our works, while opening windows on surprising possibilities, capable of fuelling new ambitions and behaviours. For this reason, within sustainable rhetoric, narratives and design strategies based on the proliferative openness proper to exchange, rather than to isolation and control, seem more congruent with the transformative attitude of the project. Steven Holl's Turbulence House, built in the New Mexico desert in 2005, features an opening placed at its center shaped to convey and accelerate the wind, in order to obtain an appreciable difference in temperature within that scorching climate. The temporary coverage at the Hangar Bicocca, realized in Milan by Studio Albori in 2016, fits into a metabolism of recovered objects of various origins and new materials available for subsequent use. The project for a new contemporary art museum in Bangkok by R&Sie(n), 2002, was to be draped by a kind of wire mesh shroud, capable of attracting the suspended dust in the air, making it cleaner and, at the same time, recycling as "construction material" the characteristic pollution of Asian cities at the time of their recent development, decisive in defining their particular light. These and other projects act in the direction of a secularization of the debate on sustainability in architecture. They do not promise definitive solutions, nor do they suggest predetermined behaviours. They deal with local conditions by extracting contingent and specific strategies, which feed the project idea without taking its place. They are good architectures, not just architectures "for good". for Ossigeno #O7, Padua, 2020 02 20 Giovanni Corbellini (1959) is an architect, PhD, critic of contemporary architecture. He taught in Venice, Ferrara, Milan, Trieste and is currently Full professor of architectural design at the Polytecnhic of Turin. Among his books we mention Housing is back in town (2012), Dr. Corbellini’s pills: tips for architecture beginners (2016), Ex libris. 16 keywords of contemporary architecture (2019), ViceVersa - Black Conversations (2019).
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