The Architecture of Closed Worlds

What do outer space capsules, submarines and office buildings have in common? Each is conceived as a closed system: a self-sustaining physical environment demarcated from its surroundings by a boundary that does not allow for the transfer of matter or energy.  Contemporary discussions about global warming, recycling and sustainability have emerged as direct conceptual constructs related to the study and analysis of closed systems. From the space program to countercultural architectural groups experimenting with autonomous living, The Architecture of Closed Worlds documents a disciplinary transformation and the rise of a new environmental consensus in the form of a synthetic naturalism. 

Lydia Kallipoliti is an architect, engineer and scholar living in New York. She is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and the Director of the Master of Science program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her research focuses on the intersections of architecture, technology and environmental politics and more particularly on recycling material experiments, theories of waste and reuse, as well as closed and self-reliant systems and urban environments. Kallipoliti has taught at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, Syracuse University and the Cooper Union and holds degrees from the AUTh in Greece (Dipl. Arch-Eng.), MIT (SMArchS) and Princeton University (PhD).

Image by Pentagram Design