From Aqualungs to the Eden Project: a history of closed systems
What do outer space capsules, submarines and office buildings have in common? Each was conceived as a closed system—a self-sustaining physical environment demarcated from its surroundings by a boundary prohibiting the transfer of matter or energy. As partial reconstructions of the world in time and space, closed systems identify and implement the basic materials necessary for the sustenance of life.
From the space program to countercultural architectural groups experimenting with autonomous living, The Architecture of Closed Worlds documents a disciplinary transformation and the rise of a new environmental consciousness. It presents an archive of 39 prototypes from 1928 to the present, creating a genealogy of closed-resource structures. These include the FNRS Balloon (1931), Aqualung (1943), House of the Future (1956), Disney's EPCOT (1966), Bios 3 (1972), Rocky Mountain Institute (1982) and the EDEN Project (2000). Prototypes are presented in archival images with new analysis and illustrations. The book also showcases a timeline of the 39 prototypes that illuminates the ways in which they have contributed to the idea of "net-zero" or "zero-energy" in the contemporary discourse on sustainability.
Lydia Kallipoliti is an architect, engineer, and scholar with a PhD from Princeton University and a SMArchS from MIT. She is an Assistant Professor and the Co-Director of the Master of Science Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well as the principal of ANAcycle thinktank in Brooklyn, New York.
Featured image is reproduced from 'The Architecture of Closed Worlds.'
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Featured image—a composite of diagrams of real or imagined closed systems ranging from an eighteenth-century underwater breathing apparatus to a zero-gravity life support system and an anaerobic digester used to convert human and animal waste into methane—is reproduced from The Architecture of Closed Worlds by architect, engineer and scholar Lydia Kallipoliti. A hands-down staff favorite 2018 Holiday Gift Book for the Design Devotee, this vibrantly designed volume with reflective silver cover and the winning subtitle, Or, What Is the Power of Shit?, comes to us from Lars Müller and Storefront for Art and Architecture. continue to blog
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FORMAT: Pbk, 7.75 x 10.75 in. / 352 pgs / 340 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $40.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $54 ISBN: 9783037785805 PUBLISHER: Lars Müller Publishers/Storefront for Art and Architecture AVAILABLE: 11/20/2018 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
The Architecture of Closed Worlds Or, What Is the Power of Shit?
From Aqualungs to the Eden Project: a history of closed systems
Published by Lars Müller Publishers/Storefront for Art and Architecture. By Lydia Kallipoliti.
What do outer space capsules, submarines and office buildings have in common? Each was conceived as a closed system—a self-sustaining physical environment demarcated from its surroundings by a boundary prohibiting the transfer of matter or energy. As partial reconstructions of the world in time and space, closed systems identify and implement the basic materials necessary for the sustenance of life.
From the space program to countercultural architectural groups experimenting with autonomous living, The Architecture of Closed Worlds documents a disciplinary transformation and the rise of a new environmental consciousness. It presents an archive of 39 prototypes from 1928 to the present, creating a genealogy of closed-resource structures. These include the FNRS Balloon (1931), Aqualung (1943), House of the Future (1956), Disney's EPCOT (1966), Bios 3 (1972), Rocky Mountain Institute (1982) and the EDEN Project (2000). Prototypes are presented in archival images with new analysis and illustrations. The book also showcases a timeline of the 39 prototypes that illuminates the ways in which they have contributed to the idea of "net-zero" or "zero-energy" in the contemporary discourse on sustainability.
Lydia Kallipoliti is an architect, engineer, and scholar with a PhD from Princeton University and a SMArchS from MIT. She is an Assistant Professor and the Co-Director of the Master of Science Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well as the principal of ANAcycle thinktank in Brooklyn, New York.
