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Essay

Post-Collapse Architecture

The ongoing ecological crisis, climate change and other upheavals will inevitably change architecture. What will the architectural aesthetics of the future look like?

Text Aleksi Lohtaja & Liisa Ryynänen
Thoravej 29, pihlmann architects, Kööpenhamina 2025. The former 1960s factory building was treated as its own material bank in transformation to various kind of premises for art and innovation organisations. The building’s distinctly horizontal organization was reconfigured, for example, by converting load-bearing TT-slabs into staircases. Photo: Hampus Berndtson

WITH THE CURRENT DISCUSSIONS on the shift in architecture and its new values, what we are inevitably talking about is the pivotal role of architecture in responding to the climate crisis. The world is obviously broken, and it is the task of architecture to fix it; “young architects” are questioning new construction, demolition is viewed with increasing criticism even outside of the discussion on our built heritage, and even the real estate and construction sector likes to talk about a circular economy and resource-efficiency. Sustainability and responsibility must be taken into account in all construction, and renovation must be favoured over building something new. 

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Published in 5 – 2025 - New Visions