Architecture in the Anthropocene

In order to learn about dinosaurs, today’s palaeontologists dig up fossils. To find out about how we interacted with climate change, the researchers of tomorrow will study technofossils: the remains of buildings and infrastructure. In the Anthropocene – the geological epoch in which human activity has had such a significant impact on the planet that it can be viewed as an epoch in its own right – the mass of human-made constructions outweighs that of matter that has grown organically.

In his new book, Friedrich von Borries assumes the perspective of future archaeologists searching for the characteristic architectural creations of our age. In this guise, he finds the most revealing artefacts primarily on the outskirts of cities. Waste incineration plants and server farms, multi-storey constructions for rearing pigs and seed vaults betray more about our destructive modes of production and life than opulent buildings in the centres of our metropoles. In his speculative archaeology, von Borries also sketches out a psychological portrait of advanced industrial societies. And he audaciously looks ahead to a form of architecture that is no longer centred purely around human beings and their needs.