Architecture & Regenerative Thinking
Peter van Assche will talk about new architectural repertoires for a circular economy.
In a circular economy, there is no waste and raw materials are used over and over again. More than half of the waste that our civilisation produces is waste from construction and infrastructure; waste resulting from designs by architects. The transition to a circular economy means a fundamental transformation across the full breadth of the field of construction and has a series of serious implications for the architectural discipline. New system logics will not only provide sustainable architecture, but will also offer solutions for societal challenges.
Peter van Assche
After beginning his career in science and experimental mathematics, Peter van Assche transitioned into architecture and is now the founding principal of bureau SLA, an Amsterdam-based firm focused on the necessity of transitioning to a circular economy through design. As a design studio, bureau SLA consists of a team of architects and builders, supported by architectural historians, landscape architects, and energy experts. The studio does not wait for commissions to be given, but builds and develops in the city in an innovative way — from their own initiatives and with their own manpower. By designing, researching, inventing, and building the full potential of material use, energy, waste flows, smart living & working and development processes are discovered and implemented.
Peter van Assche is the chairman of the Committee for Architectural Review in Utrecht, supervisor for the Utrecht station area, and professor Architecture and Circular Thinking at the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam. He received a Master of Information Technology (cum laude) from the Technical University Eindhoven and obtained his architecture degree from the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture. He was visiting professor in Erfurt (DE) and at Cornell University (NY). In 2022 he is visiting professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
This seminar is not limited to discussing the architectural discipline only, but also includes the journeys of Gulliver, Models of Doom, the Anthropocene, Alice in Wonderland, László Moholy-Nagy, hobbit houses and the making of toasters.
