Christopher Hight _ ‘Resilience in Sci-fi‘
This episode is a conversation with architectural designer and theorist Christopher Hight about two science fiction books;’The Drowned World’ by J. G. Ballard, and ‘Seveneves’ by Neal Stephenson. The two books were published over 50 years apart. Both of these books are prime candidates for this show because they each do two things. The two books discuss an evolving Earth climate as well as an evolving human species. There is also quit a bit of difference within these two books. We see very different reasons for the climate change that’s taking place, the plotlines occur over drastically different time scales, and the ‘how’ and ‘what’ that occurs to human evolution is different. The two books also open a conversation about how designers and architects can rethink the concept of resilience regarding the environment.
Christopher Hight is a designer and theorist. Hight’s writing and research address the nexus of landscape, urbanism and emerging electronic and material assemblies. He is associate professor of architecture and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Rice School of Architecture. Hight has been a Fulbright Scholar and obtained a masters degree in the histories and theories of architecture from the Architectural Association, and a Ph.D. from the London Consortium at the University of London. Previously he taught at the Architectural Association’s Design Research Laboratory, and has worked for the Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
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