ICAR / ИКАР
manifesto— program
Independent Center of Architecture and Urban Research
Today’s world, obviously, in a state of instability and fragility. Every day challenges us, from economic crises, end with natural disasters and epidemics. The COVID-19 virus pandemic, have proven how vulnerable the human species and its civilization are, and all the achievements of humanity do not guarantee its further development. This means that our familiar world passes a certain point of no return, after which it will completely change.
We are entering a time of a radically changing world order, a crisis of the end of liberal capitalism, anti-globalization, and, as a result, a change in the socio-economic formation — a paradigm shift from an industrial to an information society. In this regard, a change in the socio-economic basis inevitably affects all spheres of human life and activity. In order to be ready for these changes and revolutions, a constant rethinking of experience, the actualization of knowledge, theories, and new meanings are needed.
The prevailing liberal economic doctrine is not able to respond to the challenges of time and offer a way of development. Indeed, a number of questions can be posed to which there is no clear answer.
How will society develop when the resource for expanding markets and economic growth runs out? How to ensure economic growth, is the digital economy capable of this? What to do for the people in the era of automation and artificial intelligence?
These and other socio-economic issues are inevitably projected onto the lives of people and states, affecting such aspects as the system of resettlement and employment, transport infrastructure, the layout structure of cities and housing in modern society.
It can be stated that in the modern architectural discipline occurs a loss of the integrity of knowledge about its subject. There is no such a theory that critically comprehends and conceptualizes the processes taking place in the surrounding world, architectural creativity, and urban space.
In the mainstream of architectural discourse, the problems of architecture and the modern city are reduced to external representation, formalism, in which space is treated as a space of consumption and entertainment.
An architectural object is an attraction, the main function of which is to monetize area and space, to attract and retain attention due to its extravagant form and various amenities. The commodification of space occurs along with the loss of its significance. In other words, architecture, as a type of humanitarian and design activity, serves the populist ambitions of the ruling class, as well as the corporate sector, not having enough potential to offer alternative solutions of architectural and planning problems and promising ideas.
Rapidly impending reality shows that the economic model of overconsumption and globalization has outlived itself, the resource to maintain it has been exhausted. The populist architectural and urbanistic discourse is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the new realities. Alternative directions of collective thinking should arise, proposing the formulation of actual issues of our time, the new meanings and concepts.
The information paradigm of human existence requires the formulation of fundamentally different approaches and principles, a new conceptual language. The information and the environment generated by it are fundamentally immaterial. Rethinking the existing approaches to the design of space, in the interaction of man with the environment, the relations of the digital and material world will be in the focus of attention of architects of the future.
In connection with the above, I consider it necessary to establish the
Independent Center for the Architecture and Urban Research
(ICAR / ИКАР) which would be engaged in independent research in the field of architectural design, urban planning and urbanism, the development of a methodology and design principles aimed at building an up-to-date theoretical and methodological base that returns architectural discipline the status of autonomy, the science and art of a free spirit.
The core of the ICAR methodology is a cybernetic approach using modern information methods, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Space and its structure is the main subject of study of architecture. A return to constructive methods, objective foundations will allow us to clear knowledge from of random and opportunistic layers, and return methodological clarity. The focus of ICAR is such problems as:
- new forms of organization and self-organization of the human environment;
- modeling and algorithmization of urban planning systems and structures;
- the problem of space in the digital dimension;
- automated methods and design tools.
Thus, the requirements of the time are: updating architectural and urban science based on the modern achievements of science and culture; compliance with realities of today and tomorrow, the rejection of redundancy in the era of the crisis of liberalism and overconsumption;
the continuation of the centuries-old tradition of the theory of architecture, the strengthening of the interdisciplinary nature of architectural discipline; the formulation of problems and questions for meaningful spatial development of the human environment.
I invite like-minded people to collaborate in creative work!
30.03.2020
Roman Kuchukov
architect, founder ICAR/ИКАР
Independent Center of Architecture and Urban Research
