ARCH 509, Section 6

The impacts of climate change represent an unprecedented challenge to our ways of inhabiting the world. Today, more than ever, it is imperative that we explore the relationship between climate and territory tore imagine new forms of collective organization, resource management, and the protection of the planetary socio-cultural diversity. Decarbonizing buildings, adopting technologies for energy optimization, reusing materials, managing and operating ecosystems: we need more sustainable behaviors, models and processes. How can our architectural and urbanistic practices accelerate climate action?This3-creditexperimental seminar serves as an academic platform to debate the contemporary practices in architecture, urbanism, and territory foregrounded in the XIII Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism(BIAU).Under the theme CLIMATES: Actions for Good Living, the XIIIBIAU takes on the challenge of building more egalitarian societies in a world under going mounting socioenvironmental, political ,economic, and cultural crises. Organized into six categories–New Rules, BuiltWorks, Trajectory, Publications ,Pedagogies, and Other Coordinates–,the selection of awarded projects in the XIIIBIAU offers alternative and innovative solutions for inhabiting and caring for the planet. CLIMATES situates the production of habitat within the notion of good living(sumak kawsay),an Andean concept that prioritizes the practices, knowledge, and ways of living of Indigenous peoples that promote ecological integrity, the development of technologies in harmony with the territory and respect for all life forms in the planet. Building in that framework, we will study a selection of the projects in each category and debate the problematics, strategies, and outcomes they offer. The course will include lectures situating the key semester concepts, collective readings, extended research about the projects ’professional practices and processes, conversations with the XIIBIAU’S curatorial team members, and in depth engagement with a selection of the awarded projects ’authors. Students will contribute to the conceptualization and curation of an end-of-semester event at Taubman College presenting the key lessons