On the 21st of October the European architecture platform LINA launched its 2022 programme with its first conference connecting prominent cultural players in the field of architecture (its twenty-seven members) with new and emerging voices (twenty-five selected fellows) with the ambition to “help steer the architectural sector towards sustainable, circular and clean practices”.¹ The conference developed as a succession of conversations by a selection of wisely selected speakers (Day I) and a sequence of inspiring presentations by the twenty-five featured LINA fellows (Day II). Whilst the former speakers introduced the importance of imminently re-thinking our existing and future built environment at a macro level, the latter presented inventive approaches to how architecture can actively shape a more sustainable and resilient built environment.

The programme and ambitions of LINA and its community could not be more imperative considering the contemporary climate crisis and the fact that the building and construction industry account for 36 per cent of global energy consumption and 37 per cent of energy related CO2 emissions.This is more worrying if one looks to the 2021 “Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction” by United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), which outlines that predictions for the total number of buildings in the world is expected to double over the next 40 years, reaching an unprecedented 465bn square meters in 2060, “the equivalent of adding the floor area of Japan to the planet every single year to 2060.”² The time has come to challenge the idea of the architect as the designer of buildings and, rather, propose his or her role as restorer and repairer of our built environment and planet Earth. LINA is an interesting experiment which aims to pave the way in this direction.

With the aim of introducing diverse perspectives on the topic from fields which span from art, architecture, economics, urbanism and which operate between the built, the legislative and research, the first day of the conference was structured through a selection of contributions from individuals like Dr. Janez Potočnik, Co-Chair at the UNEP Environment International Resource Panel and former EU Commissioner for Environment, Sarah Ichioka, a strategist and urbanist who explores the intersections of cities, society and ecology, Dr. Milica Topalović, Associate Professor at ETH Zurich, Dr. Florian Hertweck, Professor at the University of Luxemburg, and Markus Krieger, editor at ARCH+. The conversations outlined the fundamental agency of the architect in fighting our climate change battle, from the importance of natural resource management to exploring the practice of regenerative design “as a tool for the repair of our social and environmental” countering “the material and social crises of capitalism”. Within this context, research and editorial projects as Sarah Ichioka “Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency” and ARCH+'s "The Great Repair" at the Academy of Arts, brought to the forefront the importance of repair and regeneration as new design paradigms which go beyond a “sustainable” footprint to have a net positive impact on our ecosystems. It is no surprise that projects, and most importantly, the re-use approach of Pritzker prize winners Lacatan and Vassal were frequently discussed in parallel to other realities which embraced reparative and restorative methodologies. This is especially true when looking to low-teck alternatives in villages as Hengkeng in rural China, highlighting the necessity of tackling and exploring this kind of approach through local perspectives to escape generic and universal approaches.Rather than embracing optimism or pessimism, the speakers called for a possibilist attitude towards the future we want to create, emphasizing the importance of collaborative and multi-disciplinary practices for the analysis and intervention on our environment and ecosystems.

At the heart of the LINA project lies an unequivocable sense of community and collaboration. Building upon the incredible work developed with the Future Architecture Platform from 2012 until 2019, LINA’s founder and head Matevž Čelik understands that it is only though proper teamwork and collaboration that we will be able to change and revert current harmful trends and ensure a more sustainable and regenerative approach to our built environment. LINA is, in fact, structured as a community of member institutions throughout Europe and beyond which span from cultural institutions (Fundacio Mies Van der Rohe, Lisbon Architecture Triennale, MAXXI Rome) to design and research laboratories (Atelier LUMA Arles), cultural events (Copenhagen Architecture Festival, Oslo Triennale, Tbilisi Biennale), digital endeavours (Architectuul platform), educational academies (Design Academy Eindhoven) as well as more experimental workshops like the newly established member of the Living Summer School, amongst others. Taking the potential of collaboration, the twenty-seven members are secured to support the yearly round of fellows (twenty-five in this first edition) and assisting them “in developing their skills and competences through mentorships or residencies, by publishing or exhibiting their work, or any other format of collaboration agreed to by both parties.” One cannot stress enough the importance of creating these intergenerational alliances and the potential of fostering and nurturing the ideas of young practitioners whilst disseminating these with a larger public and audience. It is important to note that the selection of the members is not at all left to chance, but it rather prioritizes space of cultural production and dissemination which will engage the LINA fellows in a wide range of activities until the end of May 2023 across 22 countries. Beyond the already incredible endeavour that LINA is undertaking in terms of supporting the twenty-five fellows, there is an even greater potential held in the dissemination of such work throughout renowned European cultural institution to engage in a process of heightened awareness and education on topics for which all planetary citizens should feel called to action.

Organized into five macro-categories which include “Re-Use Housing”, “Re-frame the Landscape”, “Invisible becoming Visible”, “Change the Urban” and “Shift the Borders”, the projects presented by the twenty-five fellows either critically challenge our built environment, creatively engage in research projects to catalyse concrete action, or resourcefully explore the re-use of existing built artefacts imagining their new lives whilst building stronger communities. The ambitions laid out are many and span from “developing concrete solutions and spatial visions of the future of streets through design research, in which better air quality, traffic safety and more liveable and child-friendly cities are the objectives'' (Fig. 5), rethinking modernist buildings, their temporary content and possibilities for newly created spaces for the public (Fig. 6), displaying the potential of a self-sufficient city through an exploration of what Tallinn would look like if it produced all the food it needed to sustain itself (Fig. 7), designing an app and mapping of urban heat as experienced by cyclists, pedestrians, and other users of public space to engage local governments in policy making (Fig. 8) and sharing counter-hegemonic design strategies towards accessible, transformable, empowering and resource-efficient un/built structures (Fig. 9). Selected out of a total of 191 entries arrived at LINA through the open call, the uniqueness of the projects andapproaches to the realm of architecture are reflective of the incredibly diverse backgrounds of all the practices but are also representative of a collective attitude of young practitioners who have decided to distance themselves from an architectural culture which favours and praises built form and the architectural master to a collective making of architecture.³

Hosted at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ljubljana, the power of LINA to inspire the local community of students who are undertaking their studies and are defining their attitude towards architecture and their role as architects within our society could not be more fitting. Rather than praising our contemporary educational architectural framework which relies on an extractive and competitive approach and whose ultimate ambition is the designing of an artefact, LINA clearly exemplifies how there is so much more to architecture than built buildings whilst demonstrating that it is through collaboration that we can thrive as both architects but also as citizens. Every new building is a problem, and we cannot wait to see the ideas and conversations that the LINA community will help nurture and disseminate.

Notes

1 See https://lina.community
2 United Nations Environmental Program (2021), “Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction”. Available at: link
3 See https://lina.community