Forecast Regeneration — DAO | Algorithmic & Timber Architecture

Forecast Regeneration

Perspective

2011

Maintain an investment in local industrial processes and plan for failures.

We often do not anticipate the need for repair, yet the study of repair is an essential source for our knowledgeable use of products and it can only be learned by hand. For example, casting services into concrete limits a building’s lifespan as the structure cannot be altered to repair a service. This dilemma is exacerbated when we remove our tools and storage cabinets from our apartments since we are retracting our familiarity with repair. It also occurs at a larger scale when cities push industrial land to the outskirts. We have become accustomed to replacing our surroundings in their entirety but we must not forget the inevitable need for skilled labour during the lifespan of a building if we want it to last as long as possible.

For a long time, vernacular architecture has been respected as a sustainable strategy because of the ingenious use of local materials. This resourcefulness is based on the expectation that future failure will occur and repair is best corrected with materials immediately at hand. For example, the pristine quality of the structure in the Japanese garden of Kairaku-en has been sustained due to the adaptation of nearby resources and consequently it still looks like the original building.

Inventiveness used to be tied to survival but now globalization has made us dependent on distant resources and this weakens our ability to correct future failures as material access is constrained. In order to ensure architectural projects can last beyond our lifetime, we need to maintain an investment in local industrial processes and plan for failures.

Danielson Architecture Office

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