Urban Bricolage

Karl Twomey

Thesis

Proposal: Housing
Location: Castleforbes business park, Dublin 1

In medical terms, critical care is a specialized branch of medicine dedicated to diagnosing and treating life-threatening conditions”1. The opening metaphor puts into perspective the dire condition that the planet and its complex and interdependent ecosystems find themselves in. We are now very much living in the Anthropocene age, a geological epoch of our own making. We have profoundly shaped the world in our image at the cost of humanity’s long-term preservation. The diagnosis now paves the way for treatment and the application of “a most crucial practice of care for earthly survival”. We could argue that ‘care’ is woven into the fabric of what we do as architects and urban planners, but at this moment in time our industry is squarely at odds with societal and planetary needs. It’s time to mine the Anthropocene! To take on the role of architect bricoleur, salvaging the material of past builds and constructing with them in wholly new ways .