Amy Estermann
The act of disrupting soil for the purpose of material extraction has always been, and will continue to be, an integral process of the building industry, which has dramatic effects on all planetary ecological, climatic, and economic environments. This project aims to explore the tension between architecture and ecology within a site-specific analysis of a coastal site on the Greek island of Euboea. The exploration is divided into three methods of engagement—shifting, entangling, and responding—and will manifest itself in a spatial response to the more-than-human needs of the specific landscape. To shift is to redirect the anthropocentric stance towards “landscapes” from the perception of static compositions to an acknowledgement of movement, temporality, and decomposition. To entangle is to apply the preceding theoretical findings to the specific landscape of South Euboea, a region scarred by past human activity such as extraction and arson. Finally, to respond means to create new forms of more-than-human coexistence by reassembling the landscape, reflecting on the vernacular as a possible solution for articulating an interwoven language of material usage.
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