Apocalypse Now?

Architecture, as a profession, discipline and practice, has played a vital role in designing, constructing and maintaining modern culture. The creative work of imagining and building places, infrastructure and dwellings for the complex activities of contemporary life has contributed to the global world we now inhabit. There are, however, indications that this edifice of modernity is cracking because of external and internal forces that undermine our global society. Climate change, species extinction, and worldwide threats to democracy and governance, along with new technologies, converge and reveal the uncomfortable possibility that modern industrial global culture and civilization may collapse. As a response, an expanding body of ‘stories of collapse’ has emerged to interpret causes, processes, and scenarios. This essay engages with key voices (Rees, Bendell, Lewis, Hagens, de Oliveira, and Macy), to describe in what ways architecture is complicit in this moment, and suggests what ethical and place-based responsibilities may be required of architects and placemakers as collapse unfolds.