Welcome to the mid '20s! With humanity’s voyage into the second millennium still in its infancy, are societies confident of building brighter futures or do they instead find themselves stranded on the shores of planetary problems, crushed by the weight of history and resigned to the inevitability of an impending deluge? Should we respond to the climate crisis with contraction and catastrophism or with adaptive innovation? With fear, or with curiosity?

This year, Intermediate 3 continues to challenge the prevailing culture of climate alarmism by focusing on its hold over the future. The unit will cultivate curiosity and critical thought within a practical, design-driven approach that unfolds through the creation of time-based media, digital and mechanical prototypes, and simulation techniques. We will investigate the future as a project for climate adaptation within the history of forward-looking ideas by examining the histories of species, trajectories of technological progression, the role of narrative and the accelerating possibilities offered by AI.

Students will map future generations, imagine unexpected adaptations at the frontiers of extreme environmental phenomena and engage with phantom cultures. They will investigate the near future with an outlook on environmental design, using architectural sensibilities to navigate between different scales of adaptation spanning the building, the city and the land.

We will voyage to lands at the frontiers of extreme climate, exploring endangered coastlines and unstable wetlands, always with experimentation in mind. The city and its cultural practices will be drawn, written and designed through composite methodologies, and students will be encouraged to evolve their critical thinking to navigate through academic and corporate jargon and to challenge stiff sustainability metrics, environmental doomsayers and catastrophists. 

Intermediate 3 believes that environmental solutions result not from compliance but through free thinking, imagination and a continuous effort to study, experiment and express in design. Culture is more important than rules. Fiction is not a denier of reality, but its multiplier.