Architecture of Extraction: Galaad Van Daele / RIOT

The lecture series “Architecture of Extraction” explores the past and present relationship between architectural form and extractive processes—as seen by scholars and practitioners. What is the connection between a material’s origin and extraction mechanism, the forces that guide, facilitate, and conduct those activities, and the particular form the material takes in architecture? What is the political economy of this specific material, as in, how is value extracted from it, and what role does architecture play in 1that process? What role does technology impart in extractive processes or in seeking solutions against these? Finally, what alternatives to extraction have design practices uncovered and applied, and turn, what are the physical effects of these different processes on various scales, from construction sites and territories? The underlying goal is to candidly discuss the relationship between extraction capitalism and the built environment via spatial outcomes, from architectural outputs to logistical networks. 

Galaad Van Daele
Tuesday 25 March; 18:00 - 19:30

Galaad Van Daele is an architect, editor and researcher active in Paris and Zurich. His research interests gravitate towards ambiguous spatial objects that challenge the nature-culture boundary, which he approaches by means of writing – between history, science, fiction – and photography.   Starting from a focus on landscape studies, his research endeavours now tackle the possibility of writing a history of architecture that acknowledges the various layers of geological presence inside built spaces. Creating dialogues between architecture, the sciences and the humanities, he seeks transversal modes of thinking about spatial productions and architectural historiographies, beyond the dissociation between the human and the terrestrial.

RIOT (Research and Innovation On Territory) is a laboratory engaged in pedagogy and research within the Institute of Architecture (ENAC) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL, led by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes with Elif Erez-Henderson, Summer Islam, Antoine Iweins, Kathlyn Kao, Nagy Makhlouf, Nathalie Marj, and Saira Mohammed. Believing that the construction sector and design disciplines must pivot and wholeheartedly engage in the current social and climatic urgencies by rewiring themselves to face and repair the harm, RIOT utilizes tactics and strategies to decarbonize, decolonize, and depatriarchalize space production—by design.