The Architecture of Closed Worlds: Or, What Is the Power of Shit? traces a genealogy of self-sustaining environments — from space capsules to countercultural communes — reframing sustainability as a disciplinary history rather than a contemporary invention.
About This Book
What connects a submarine, a space capsule, and an off-grid commune? Each is a closed system: a bounded environment that attempts to regenerate its own resources without exchanging matter or energy with the outside world. Lydia Kallipoliti's research excavates 37 historical living prototypes spanning 1928 to the present, constructing an archive that repositions contemporary debates about recycling and ecological design within a much longer disciplinary trajectory. The result is a critical history of closed resource regeneration systems — one that refuses the amnesia of mainstream sustainability discourse and reveals the ideological and material stakes of synthetic naturalism. Essential reading for architects, environmental historians, and anyone thinking seriously about ecological design.
Key Features
- 300 pages of archival documentation, historical photographs, and analytical feedback drawings
- Author: Lydia Kallipoliti
- Archive of 37 historical living prototypes spanning 1928 to the present
- Published by Lars Müller Publishers, [Details available upon request]
What You'll Discover
- How the space programme and countercultural architectural groups share a common intellectual lineage in the study of closed systems
- The way contemporary sustainability discourse — recycling, global warming, ecological design — is rooted in mid-twentieth century closed-system research
- A new analytical method: feedback drawings that represent not just resource flows but loss, derailment, and the generation of unforeseen substances and atmospheres
- How the concept of synthetic naturalism emerged as an environmental consensus from experiments in autonomous living
About the Author
Lydia Kallipoliti is the author of this genealogical study of self-reliant environments, bringing together archival research and architectural analysis across nearly a century of closed-system prototypes. Further biographical details are not provided in the source material.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 300
- Dimensions: 20 × 27 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783037785805
- Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and designers engaged with ecological systems, researchers in architectural history and environmental theory, and practitioners rethinking sustainability beyond its contemporary framing.