David Benjamin: Architecture as open system

Could interpreting buildings as open, active systems rather than inert objects enable us to develop better solutions for the climate crisis?

Instead of designing single-technology fixes to address climate change, David Benjamin, principal of The Living and associate professor at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, asserts the need to design new kinds of systems that are more expansive in nature, better accounting for the rippling counter-effects that have emerged from the use of seemingly straightforward solutions such as palm oil.

By defining architecture through dynamic, holistic systems, Benjamin posits that we can better understand its reality as involving a "longer duration and wider geography" than most people, whether practitioners or everyday citizens, typically envision. He presents a "rough field guide" to understanding these new frameworks, discussing tools such as divestment, public policy, sustainability pledges, and communal building practices (e.g., the continual structural reinforcement of the Great Mosque of Djenne).

After the lecture, Benjamin engages in conversation with Forrest Meggers, the founding director of Princeton University's CHAOS (Cooling and Heating for Architecturally Optimized Systems) Lab.