TOTALITARIANISM
AGAINST
CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change. The assignment of my generation, our chance to become part of history? With this project I react to the empty radicalism of the climate movement and romanticize about climate change as a greater goal. Through speculative architecture I research and imagine a vision of the future, a utopia.
With my design of a new parliament building I visualize a totalitarian government and a society capable of successfully achieving our climate goals.
Due to the COVID-19 disease the debate about targeted government action has become all the more relevant, what at first seemed highly unlikely could actually soon be very likely indeed.
1: Context
The assignment of my
generation: Reduce global emissions down to zero in the next 30 years to
stabilize global temperatures at no more than 1.5°C above preindustrial levels,
and thereby limiting the destructive effects of the climate crisis and avoid
reaching the tipping point. The rejection of targeted government action has
delayed, or even prevented, an adequate response to the global climate crisis. The
only realistic path to the radical changes necessary to successfully achieve
our climate goals would consist of a total mobilization aimed at rapidly
cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
Then why are we not mobilizing? Our
current environmental movement only embraces small-scale, decentralized,
bottom-up solutions in contrast to the centralized, state-led and technocratic
solutions that a rapid transition on this scale would require. As all utopian
visions, realizing the radically different society that successfully achieves
zero emissions in 2050 is authoritarian in its essence. None of it will be possible
without the necessary political consensus and public opinion or without
abandoning our western democratic and liberal views.
2: Utopia
The project visualizes and speculates about the society that
successfully achieves our climate goals, with the political movement at the
center of the narrative. The mobilization and rapid transition to a low-carbon
society have reduced our global emissions to net zero and saved the environment
from further ecological degradation and humanity from further suffering of
climate hazards
The eco-fascism movement and their ecological ideologies have united the many at the expense of the few and successfully established the totalitarian government that enabled the mobilization and radical changes of society.
visual research (paper, magazines, print)
3: Building
Binnenhof, the parliamentarian building of the Dutch government was the
result of continuous architectural and programmatic transformation since the
13th century, its endless restoration and incremental changes reflecting the
unwillingness of previous democratic governments to make significant changes.
To establish their right to rule, mark the beginning of a new era and
manifest their ideologies in the physical realm of society, they demolished,
recycled and rebuild the Binnenhof. The new Binnenhof reflects the ideologies
and politics of its occupants, sustainable and authoritarian to its core. Its
program surrounding a massive forest at the center of the site, symbolically protecting
nature from those who harm it, society.
Arist Statement
Ik ben maatschappelijk betrokken en geloof in verantwoordelijkheid nemen als ontwerper met een kritische en onderzoekende houding. Ik geloof dat design het verschil kan maken en op verschillende manieren bij kan dragen aan het verbeteren van onze samenleving.
Elk project is voor mij een experiment; onderzoek is niet alleen onderdeel van het proces, vaak zijn mijn ontwerpen een onderzoek op zich. Mijn ontwerpen gaan over maatschappelijke of ecologische vraagstukken, en raken vaak ook aan de achterliggende filosofische vraagstukken.
Mijn werk is conceptueel en theoretisch, maar uiteindelijk ook ontzettend tastbaar. Zelfs bij het ontwerpen van een hypothetische utopie is fysiek materiaalexperiment onderdeel van mijn proces. Dit fysieke experiment is voor mij essentieel, uit maken haal ik niet alleen voldoening, maar ook kwaliteit. Hierdoor is mijn werk concreet, te ervaren, en zet het aan tot nadenken en discussie.
