Architecture in the Anthropocene

A speculative Archaeology
Architecture in the Anthropocene / Architektur im Anthropozän
A speculative Archaeology
What architecture reveals about us and our way of life
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...
Read more
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.
2024, 464 pages

Persons

Friedrich von Borries, born in Berlin in 1974, is an architect and Professor at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg.
Friedrich von Borries, born in Berlin in 1974, is an architect and Professor at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Caught in the Titotality Machine
Year of Publication: 2022
Franz Ehrlich’s (1907-1984) eventful life as an architect began at the Bauhaus in Dessau. In 1937, he was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp as a resistance fighter, where he had to design the gate with the inscription »To each his own«. Ehrlich later had a successful career in the GDR – but his all-encompassing assertiveness collided with the political...
Festival of Inconsequentiality
Year of Publication: 2021
Friedrich von BorriesYear of Publication: 2021

Manager Cornelia tasks curator Florian with creating a museum for ecological art for the »Sustainability in German Industries Foundation«. What would a life look like that remained – in an ecological sense – as inconsequential as possible?


Through his project, Florian meets artist Lisa, who plants trees to produce charcoal for her installations and drawings – and...

To Project the World
Year of Publication: 2016
Friedrich von BorriesYear of Publication: 2016

Years ago, designers drafted things. Today, almost everything is being designed: the climate, processes, refugee camps. But if everything is being designed, it’s time to stop evaluating design...

Rights sold to:

Spanish world rights (Metales Pesados)

RLF
Year of Publication: 2013
Friedrich von BorriesYear of Publication: 2013
The story begins with the London riots: the losers of consumer society take to the streets to show the world that they exist; cars and shops are set on fire. Young advertising executive Jan’s world is turned upside down.


He’s made a lot of money on campaigns for the fashion industry, but when he gets swept up in the unrest he comes to realise: capitalism must be overthrown, and it must...
Climate Capsules
Year of Publication: 2010
Friedrich von BorriesYear of Publication: 2010
Until now, we have chosen to ignore the consequences of global warming in the blind hope that our politicians and engineers will come up with solutions once the problems have become sufficiently...
Rights sold to:

Arabic world rights (NCT)

Home from Home
Year of Publication: 2009
Berlin, in the late 1920s. The Hirsch Kupfer und Messingwerke designed a prefabricated house – made of the weather-resistant copper from their own factory. Walter Gropius was...
Rights sold to:

Brazilian Portuguese rights (Editura Nau)

Socialist Cowboys
Year of Publication: 2008
Germans have long shown an interest in Native American and cowboy culture. But after World War II, this »hobby« became something more – at least in East Germany. In real socialism, after all, the »Wild West« meant one thing above all others: America. And since that was where the »imperialist enemies of the people« ruled, the cowboys and Native Americans...

DISCOVER

News
On 21 August 2024, Suhrakmp author Friedrich von Borries celebrates his 50th birthday.