Thu Dec-6, 7pm @ Storefront for Art & Architecture (NYC):

The Architecture of Closed Worlds / Lydia Kallipoliti_

Thursday December 6th, 7-9pm
Storefront for Art & Architecture
97 Kenmare Street, NYC
Admission is Free

Please join Assistant Professor Lydia Kallipoliti in the presentation of her book The Architecture of Closed Worlds: Or, What is the Power of Shit? at The Storefront for Art and Architecture on Thursday next week, December 6th at 7pm. The event speakers will be Anthony Vidler, Mark Wigley, Andres Jaque, Bess Krietemeyer, Ross Exo Adams, Anna Dyson and Peder Anker. The event is free and open to public.

The Architecture of Closed Worlds was written by Lydia Kallipoliti in collaboration with Storefront for Art and Architecture.

What do outer space capsules, submarines and office buildings have in common? Each is conceived as a closed system: a self-sustaining physical environment demarcated from its surroundings by a boundary that does not allow for the transfer of matter or energy. The Architecture of Closed Worlds is a genealogy of self-reliant environments. Contemporary discussions about global warming, recycling and sustainability have emerged as direct conceptual constructs related to the study and analysis of closed systems.

From the space program to countercultural architectural groups experimenting with autonomous living, this publication documents a disciplinary transformation and the rise of a new environmental consensus in the form of a synthetic naturalism. It presents an archive of 37 historical living prototypes from 1928 to the present that put forth an unexplored genealogy of closed resource regeneration systems.

In The Architecture of Closed Worlds, prototypes are presented through unique discursive narratives with historical images. Each includes new analysis in the form of a feedback drawing that problematizes the language of environmental representation by illustrating loss, derailment and the production of new substances and atmospheres.

This book is supported by the Robert S. Brown ’52 Fellows Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Elise Jaffe & Jeffrey Brown and Pentagram Design. It is based on the exhibition Closed Worlds, presented at Storefront’s gallery space in 2016.