Geospaces - by Alper Derinboğ & az & Luca Molinari & Graham Harman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Geospaces is an extended visual essay of ideas, images, drawings and projects that follows the work of Alper Derinboğaz over the past decade, framing an approach to architecture based on empathy with earth.

Architectural history is a fragment of the long evolution of forms of habitat. The shape of the lands and the way we inhabit them are at the root of all architectural endeavors. However, our established conception of architecture is based on a hierarchy between nature and culture. To move towards an architecture more in tune with earth, we need to think in continuities, looking at the emergence of natural forms, the history of human inhabitation and the future of fabrication technologies. What if we see buildings as iterations of nature rather than artificial objects?

Exploring architecture through the lens of evolution, Geospaces traces relationships between topography, geology, genetics, ecologies, and construction technologies, arguing that a hybrid approach to making will shape our future habitats.

Review Quotes

At a time when architecture is increasingly becoming an instrument of the economy, Alper Derinboğaz's design approach is to stubbornly focus on its fundamental role: to mediate between the man-made and the natural environment."
--Reinier de Graaf, OMA Partner

"Geospaces brings together a significant body of work providing relevant reflections on an architecture that exists within the fragile nexus of environmental histories, technologies and future terra-formations."
--Marcelyn Gow, Design Faculty at SCI-Arc

"Salon, through projects across multiple scales and programs, seeks to intelligently and performatively resonate with specific sites, lands, geographies and climates in meaningful manners."
--Kutan Ayata, Vice Chair in UCLA AUD

Geospaces not only interprets new ways of perceiving architecture outside traditional norms, but also re-configures many layers of urban fabric through creative thinking and theoretical acumen."
--Refik Anadol, Media Artist & Director at RAS

"As an advocate of harmonious coexistence between humans, nature, and architecture, I believe Alper's point of views exhibited in this book will inspire architects and makers around the world. "
--Ma Yansong, Founder & Principal of MAD

"The book refers the constant modification of a space that stages architecture. We should remember that is not exclusive to the human species inhabitation is opportunistic dynamic adaptive in the best of cases among many species. Can architecture as a habitat and architecture whose facade signals habitation develop material intelligence in its manifold dimensions economy locality ecological consciousness to bring multiple scales of existence into human ethical regard? And Geospaces is a text that asks us to question these relations at a planetary scale."

--Ariane Harrison, Co-Founder Harrison Atelier; Coordinator at Pratt Institute