Beyond Peak Indifference

Beyond Peak Indifference

March 29, 2023

Markus Appenzeller

Lecture series 'Beyond Peak Indifference'

at Amsterdam Academy of Architecture

Somewhere in 2019 – according to a representative investigation – the world population in its majority has come to the conclusion that climate change it the single most important topic to be addressed. We collectively moved beyond the indifference we showed towards caring for the planet and the climate. All of this will have a huge impact on the cities and villages we live in, and it will profoundly change the landscape around us.

But – how can we as spatial designers help to resole it? This was the question Thijs van Spaandonk and me asked ourselves and started looking for people with answers. We did not come far. Other than what we had thought, there are still very few with solutions, and there are certainly still many more questions than answers. This led us to program a lecture series with guest from all over the world that helped us to frame the problem of climate change in all its different aspects.

We welcomed

#2 Scott McAuly, the founder of the Anthropocene Architecture School
#3 Marina Dubova & Pierce Myers, two researchers from Strelka that investigated the possibilities of carbon sequestration
#4 Henk Ovink, the special envoy for water questions of the Dutch government
#5 Laura Burgers, a leading lawyer specialist in the right of nature
#6 Matthias Rammig, a civil engineer of Transsolar, specialised in circular and environmental design
#7 Gyorgi Galik, a behavioural designer
#8 Mike Wells, an expert in designing for biodiversity
#9 Rosalea Monacella, a researcher on urban sustainable transformation, using advanced digital modelling
#10 Wong Mun Summ, the founder of Woha Architects and an expert in nature inclusive architecture
#11 Diederik Samsom, former head of the Labour Party of the Netherlands and now responsible for the European Union’s Green Deal
#12 Roman Krznaric, a philosopher and author of ‘The Good Ancestor’
#13 Ameneh Solati, a researcher, investigating how water is used as a weapon in times of climate change

Together with the students, we defined an agenda for how we as designers can operate. The main conclusion was, that we as spatial designers have a responsibility and that we have to take a stand as to what ethical design is.

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