Date of Award
Summer 5-31-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture (MArch)
Department
Architecture
First Advisor
Surella Segú
Second Advisor
Jonathan Knowles
Abstract
The Eco-Posthuman Manifesto, in this thesis, serves as a framework for spatial transformation within the context of the Anthropocene. As of 2020, the weight of human-made matter has surpassed all living biomass. This shift is both material and symbolic. It exposes the consequences of human-centered development and calls for a rethinking of architecture’s relationship with life, time, and ecology. Taking the Barbican Estate as a case study, the thesis proposes a 100-year transformation, shifting the site from a concrete, human-optimized housing complex to a living biome shared by humans, non-humans, and embedded technologies. Through design strategies such as Miyawaki afforestation, decentralized composting, vertical irrigation, and spatial adaptation, the thesis envisions biomass gradually superseding human mass within the estate. Architecture moves away from enclosure and toward the hosting of ecological processes. Maintenance becomes spontaneous. Cohabitation emerges naturally. This vision introduces a shift in architectural values. Ownership is replaced by participation. Identity becomes relational and shaped by ecological alignments. Buildings act as adaptive interfaces between species and environments. Private units become smaller. Shared, mobile, and seasonal structures take their place. Technology no longer dominates. Instead, it mediates communication between human and non-human systems. Rather than preserving the Barbican as a static monument, this thesis reframes it as a testbed for posthuman revitalization—offering a design methodology that can extend to other modernist housing estates facing ecological and cultural obsolescence.
Recommended Citation
Wu, Shuli, "Eco-Posthumanism — A Utopian Transformation of Modernist Residence" (2025). Masters Theses. 1459.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1459
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