Kozminska, U., 2024.

Caring Architecture for Human and More-than-Human Coexistence

In the current times of accelerating growth, polarising discourses, and antagonistic positions, a growing group of architectural practitioners, thinkers, and educators see their life worlds as "patchy," characterised by the uneven conditions of more-than-human livability in landscapes increasingly dominated by industrial forms." "Patchy Anthropocene" is both a concept and a tool, conceptualised by anthropologists Anna Tsing, Andrew S. Mathews, and Niels Buvandt, who explore more-than-human social relations.
This conversation was held in the 'Gender and Sustainability' panel at Aarhus School of Architecture in December 2021 between Meike Schalk, associate professor in urban studies and urban theory at KTH School of Architecture in Stockholm, Jeanette Frisk, co-founder of the Copenhagen-based architectural practice, arki lab, Kasia Nawratek, a senior lecturer at Manchester School of Architecture and writer, and Ula Kozminska, associate professor in post-extractive material practice at Aarhus School of Architecture and curator of the panel. We took "patchiness" as a starting point for imagining diverse futures that may unfold from more attentive architectural inquiries into shared interests, needs, and goals. The approaches that were discussed suggest foregrounding existing and possible relationships and embracing mutual dependencies of human and more-than-human actors to build caring alliances.