“Geologists talk about the age where we are living as Anthropocene... this idea that we are living in a time where human presence is the strongest force of change.” So says Bjarke Ingels, enfant prodige of contemporary architecture — borrowing the words of a scientific community that has yet to reach a consensus on when this current era actually began. In the words of a more authoritative source, 1995 Nobel laureate in chemistry Paul Crutzen (who is credited with popularizing the term) puts it best : “For millennia, humans have behaved as rebels against a superpower we call ‘Nature.’ In the 20th century, however, new technologies, fossil fuels, and a fast-growing population resulted in a ‘Great Acceleration’ of our own powers.” Indeed, a recent account posits that the Anthropocene began with the first nuclear test, though Ingels begs to differ, siding with theorists who speculate that this era started at some 8,000 years ago, "when we domesticated animals, and plants — when we became sedentary. We're not roaming around; we're actually staying put... and we started building buildings." Thus, architects, according with Ingels, should recognize their untold influence on the shift to a settled, sheltered livelihood and look to break ...
“Geologists talk about the age where we are living as Anthropocene... this idea that we are living in a time where human presence is the strongest force of change.” So says Bjarke Ingels, enfant prodige of contemporary architecture — borrowing the words of a scientific community that has yet to reach a consensus on when this current era actually began. In the words of a more authoritative source, 1995 Nobel laureate in chemistry Paul Crutzen (who is credited with popularizing the term) puts it best : “For millennia, humans have behaved as rebels against a superpower we call ‘Nature.’ In the 20th century, however, new technologies, fossil fuels, and a fast-growing population resulted in a ‘Great Acceleration’ of our own powers.” Indeed, a recent account posits that the Anthropocene began with the first nuclear test, though Ingels begs to differ, siding with theorists who speculate that this era started at some 8,000 years ago, "when we domesticated animals, and plants — when we became sedentary. We're not roaming around; we're actually staying put... and we started building buildings." Thus, architects, according with Ingels, should recognize their untold influence on the shift to a settled, sheltered livelihood and look to break ...