What architecture may learn from ecology

Text: Krisztián Dudics

Architecture relates to ecological issues on more than just one level: architectural theory is a participating agent in the philosophical-scientific-artistic discourses of the currently prevailing Zeitgeist, the construction and the utilisation of buildings are some of the most significant media conveying the physical influences mankind exerts on the ecosphere and artificial environment is thus also an agent shaping human interrelations and approaches. On the one hand, this system of correlations reveals architecture as a reflection of the prevailing current social Zeitgeist as if it had no means of whatsoever on its own, on the other hand it endows it with potentials to overcome ecological crisis as well as the responsibilities involved as it is a medium capable of shaping the attitudes of the present and the future. This article presents an example of an individual approach to the characters of ecological architecture.