In our third year of investigations into designing regenerative architectures equally for other-than-humans and humans, we have been speculating on institutions that will give a voice to ecosystems and species in our processes of democracy and governance in 2030 and beyond. The sites are located in the dense power centre of Whitehall in London. Many projects form an interface between ecological data monitoring and human deliberations. Some extend the Houses of Parliament with a house of living using spiritual rituals where feedback responses are embodied in AI-powered animist robots, or decentre humans in a metaverse hosted in an ecological data centre.

Others have redesigned the intellectual and operational structure of the civil service to reflect systemic approaches to society, creating Departments of Regenerative Agriculture, Ecological Transition, Regenerative Economy, and a Ministry of Half Earth Socialism. A few nudge nations towards sustainable behaviour through the dissemination of an ecological anarchism, or a Ministry of the Future, through combined lobbying and terrorism.

As in previous years, the typologies aim to provide habitats for wildlife. Unsurprisingly, the ecosystems integrated in the schemes have shrunk in this dense urban context; nature connectivity and biodiversity net gain are achieved through thinner wildlife corridors and stepping stones that connect parks and the Thames. The strategies de-pave some of the existing hard surfaces, add green and brown roofs, create landscaped courtyards within – or green canyons between – buildings, or diversify river ecosystems with various amphibious habitats.

Our focus on circularity has evolved into ad hoc architectures, bricolaged from urban waste mined from demolition sites, reusing entire existing buildings or crafted from the clay extracted when digging large basements.

These ecological and conscious architectures give a voice to other-than-humans at multiple scales, through the international and/or national remit of the briefs in Whitehall, on site with massing and landscapes, and within their building envelopes.

Tutors

Eric Guibert is a gardener-architect and teacher. Through his built and grown architectural practice, he researches ways of co-creating regenerative architectures with ecosystems and species that nurture and express their emergence. This Architectural Animism investigates more equal relationships between humans and their habitats.

Christopher Daniel is an architect and experience designer with systemic sensibilities and a background in designing theatres and places for performance. He is director of Polysemic and London organiser for the Long Now Foundation.

Guest Critics
Edmund Alcock (KSR), Pereen d’Avoine (Russian for Fish), Keb Garavito (Pilbrow and Partners Architects), Hwei Fan Liang (ACAN), Guy MannesAbbott, Mette Pedersen (Kraaijvanger Architects), Caspar Rodgers (almanac), Kacper Sehnke (Falconer Chester Hall Architects), Finola Simpson (Gollifer Langston Architects), Lourenço Viveiros (Pilbrow and Partners Architects)