Architectural Computing and Design Optimization for Healthful Ecotopian Built Environments?

This chapter discusses the potentials and limitations of architectural computing methods on the creation of healthful ecotopian built environments. In light of current global environmental crises, we first reframe the concept of ecotopia as a healthful, non-threatening built environment that considers these crises, the limits of Earth, different productive forces, and spatial, sociocultural, and ecological diversity. We place this reframing in the context of three key concepts from social studies of science and technology: engendering, sympoiesis, and assemblages. We then discuss two examples of computational methods—multi-objective optimization and reinforcement learning—and their potentials and limitations in light of this reframed notion of healthful ecotopias. We conclude that to truly contribute to a healthful ecotopia, we will need to imbue such computational methods with an awareness of and adaptability to non-human agents such as plants and animals.