A more natural architectural model that is sustainable, more economic and even more democratic, based on biological and digital cutting-edge techniques and the use of renewable and ecological materials. This is what UIC Barcelona School of Architecture professor, Alberto T. Estévez proposes in a chapter called "Sustainable Living? Biodigital Future!", included in the Sustaining Resources for Tomorrow book, that was recently published by Springer.
In this volume, Alberto T. Estévez starts off by recognising the contradictions of capitalism, based on the impetus of the accumulation of capital and the overexploitation of our natural environment. Therefore, he warns that “the reality of our times, and this is what we must face, is that if we all continue to live the way we do in so-called developed countries, we will need the resources of two whole planets, and the fact is that in the short term we only have one”. He invokes the term “comprehensive ecology”, in other words, tackling the current climate crisis based on a comprehensive approach which allows nature to be protected while fighting poverty at the same time.
In his chapter, Alberto T. Estévez continues to insist on the urgency of continuing to undertake research to achieve the application of architecture that involves new biological and digital cutting-edge techniques, which allow our homes to be more sustainable.
Estévez thus qualifies ideal construction as self-sufficient and invokes the principle of low technology, which, according to him, offers a way to inhabit that is “more natural, more sustainable, more economic and even more democratic”. On the other hand, he proposes the need to apply artificial intelligence so that housing models can administer their own resources.
In general, the article not only aims at promoting a type of architecture that is environmentally responsible, but also invites you to reflect, while engaging your conscience and that unavoidable responsibility that as humans we cannot delegate. The responsibility to safeguard the future of our planet, and, by extension, our own.
