Dynamic Landscapes, Emerging Territories

As a result of the pressing environmental and technological conditions dominant today, new frontiers for architectural production are emerging. Fueled by accelerated change and increased connectivity, these trajectories operate across multiple scales and domains. The evolving relationship between place, technology, and occupancy formulates a complex active structure that tends to have fluctuating levels of activity and impact. These conditions are giving way to hybridized settings where the interdependence of digital and analog is altering the very politics of place and identity. In response to the prevalence of amalgamated settings, the paradigm of “Dynamic Landscapes, Emerging Territories” is presented. Dynamic Landscapes have definitions and presence in multiple locations simultaneously, requiring new methods of documentation and assessment in order to conceive appropriate design responses. The paper uses the Syrian Refugee Crisis as a case study for deciphering the implications inherent in displacement in the context of dynamic landscapes. Furthermore, it presents an opportunity to think of new architectural trajectories rooted and driven by the animation of such sites. Inherently dynamic, forced displacement presents rich emerging territories where design carries significant impact and facilitates a tangible reassessment of a refugee’s narrative. Supported by robust information networks and active feedback loops, displaced landscapes as such can learn from their residents and inform their imminent futures specifically, as well as our collective human occupancy at large. Within constantly changing milieus, architecture’s premises and processes are being challenged to respond to fluctuating contexts and provide for transient occupancies. While some may see this as a loss of spatial agency when it comes to design, these conditions present an opportunity to think of new architectural trajectories that are rooted and driven by the dynamism of multilayered landscapes and new approaches towards practice.