How Low-tech Sustainability informs Urban Landmark Design

Today we are living in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

Climate and energy crises, the global economic downturn, and the COVID-19 pandemic urge us architects to re-evaluate our priorities and methods in the generation of signature architecture. High-tech dependent, Starchitect-led visions for architectural landmarks are no longer viable nor sustainable. Any and all proposals for the built environment need to present purposefully viable solutions that address issues around energy usage, material waste, supply chain inefficiencies, and carbon footprint.

We believe the Geomdan’s Museum and Library Cultural Complex Project is a great opportunity to reform landmark aesthetics to be informed by climate resilience and to rediscover low-tech strategies to generate sustainable architecture.

While this proposal is about connecting and integrating the urban space and the landscape on a morphological level, it also brings forward historically proven yet overlooked methods of construction for energy endurance and climate resiliency.

The proposal therefore becomes fully immersed in history, nature and “archeology” of architecture. What better fit to create an archeological park, in the form of an archeological museum and a library that will become a visual and archival complex for the region and a unique public building.