Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment - by Rania Ghosn & El Hadi Jazairy (Paperback)

About the Book

How do we make sense of the Earth at a moment in which it is presented in crisis? Geostories is a manifesto for the environmental imagination that renders sensible the issues of climate change and through geographic fiction invites readers to relate to the complexity of Earth systems in their vast scales of time and space. The series of architectural projects becomes a medium to synthesize different forms and scales of knowledge on technological externalities, such as oil extraction, deep-sea mining, ocean acidification, water shortage, air pollution, trash, space debris, and a host of other social-ecological issues. The book is organized into three sections-terrarium, aquarium, planetarium, each of which revisits such devices of wonder that assemble publics around representations of the Earth. Through design research, Geostories brings together spatial history, geographic representation, projective design, and material public assemblies to speculate on ways of living with such legacy technologies on the planet.

Book Synopsis

How do we make sense of the Earth at a moment in which it is presented in crisis?

Geostories is a manifesto for the environmental imagination that renders sensible the issues of climate change and through geographic fiction invites readers to relate to the complexity of Earth systems in their vast scales of time and space. The series of architectural projects becomes a medium to synthesize different forms and scales of knowledge on technological externalities, such as oil extraction, deep-sea mining, ocean acidification, water shortage, air pollution, trash, space debris, and a host of other social-ecological issues.

The book is organized into three sections-terrarium, aquarium, planetarium, each of which revisits such devices of wonder that assemble publics around representations of the Earth. Through design research, Geostories brings together spatial history, geographic representation, projective design, and material public assemblies to speculate on ways of living with such legacy technologies on the planet.

Review Quotes

"Geostories challenges its readers to grasp the immensity of the problems the planet and its inhabitants face. But it also equips them to imagine a way forward, however unnerving and precarious that way may be." --Journal of Architectural Education

"Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment surveys changing environments around the world and responses to these events, acknowledging the presence and effects of climate change and the potential of a different kind of response to these revised environments.

The book's three sections (terrarium, aquarium, and planetarium) contain black and white images throughout that accompany such intriguing blends of science, social history, and technology as the note that icebergs are actually free for the taking. They can be used in projects such as towing them to the Arabian Peninsula to provide fresh water at less cost than building a water plant.

This blend of science, technology, and human affairs creates an intriguing survey of the earth's geosystems and the need for creative, wide-ranging, innovative systems of transformation in response to climate change.

No science or social studies collection should be without this futuristic analysis." --Donovan's Literary Services/Recommended Reading

"Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy think big--very big. The duo, who together form the studio Design Earth, create drawings that explore our ecological impact at the macro scale. Their new book, Geostories, showcases multiple drawing series on this theme. For example, one series depicts how humanity might adapt to an atmosphere-less Earth, while another details a real proposal that would use Antarctic icebergs to the supply the Middle East with water. Ghosn and Jazairy, who were tapped to participate in the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture, approach their sometimes grim scenarios with a sense of humor: Superstudio's Continuous Monument, Tatlin's Tower, and Bucky's Dome, among others, make cameos. It's slightly disappointing, however, that Geostories mostly reproduces Design Earth's color drawings in black-and-white." --Metropolis Magazine