The relationship between nature and human-made environments has a complex history. Different societies interpreted nature differently in their cultures and daily lives throughout time. People's urge to not compete but be harmonious with nature is not a new phenomenon, specific to our era of a planet warming rapidly. From the works of naturalists in the 18th century till today's garbage architects, our built environment and cities have also been shaped partially by these numerous approaches.
DE SINGEL and the Flanders Architecture Institute invited Lydia Kallipoliti for a lecture at the Blue Hall on 15 October 2024, following the footsteps of her recently published book Histories of Ecological Design: An Unfinished Cyclopedia. Kallipoliti defines different eras in which philosophers, architects and designers conceived various forms of co-habiting our planet. Today with the emergency of the climate crisis, she will take us on a journey of reflection on our past practices of intervening the earth in making cities, spaces and objects.
Lydia Kallipoliti is an architect, engineer and scholar whose research focuses on the intersections of architecture, technology and environmental politics. She is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the Cooper Union in New York. Previously she has taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she directed the MSArch program, Syracuse University, Columbia University, Pratt Institute and the University of Technology Sydney; she was also a visiting fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Kallipoliti is the author of Histories of Ecological Design: An Unfinished Cyclopedia (Actar, 2024), as well as The Architecture of Closed Worlds, Or, What is the Power of Shit (Lars Muller/Storefront, 2018). Along with Areti Markopoulou, she curated the 2022 Tallinn Architecture Biennale with the theme Edible; Or, The Architecture of Metabolism. Her work has been exhibited in a number of international venues including the Venice Biennial, the Istanbul Design Biennial, the Shenzhen Biennial, the Lisbon Triennale, the Oslo Triennale, the London Design Museum and the Storefront for Art and Architecture. Kallipoliti is the recipient of a Webby Award, grants from the Graham Foundation, and the New York State Council for the Arts, an Honorable Mention at the Shenzhen Biennial, a Fulbright scholarship, and the ACSA annual award for Creative Achievement. Her practice ANAcycle was recognized as a Leading Innovator in Sustainable Design in BUILD’s 2019, 2020 and 2021 awards. Kallipoliti holds a Diploma in Architecture and Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, a SMArchS from MIT and a PhD from Princeton University.