‘Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must … be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.’

– Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Diploma 3 explores an evolving architecture that challenges dominant ecological design paradigms by shaping critical, future-oriented modes of ecological reciprocity. The unit critically reassesses conventional adaptive and resilient design strategies, emphasising architecture’s potential to articulate the complex interplay between the built environment, urban life, nature and its inhabitants. Focusing on material novelty and emerging technologies, the unit is particularly interested in generating a dynamic relationship between material effect and affect, as well as spatial sensibility and cultural practices. Here, architecture becomes both a model of and for co-evolving design intelligence, advocating for a globally and ecologically conscious approach. 

Despite international recognition of urgent environmental crises at both local and planetary scales – and ongoing efforts such as the UN Environment Programme, the New Climate Finance Goals, Nationally Determined Contributions and the forthcoming 30 objectives of COP30 – political and economic instability constrain essential opportunities and resources. Responding to these limitations, DIP3 embraces architectural optimism, pursuing experimental work that explores emerging ecological possibilities, particularly within the Global South. Our ambition is to formulate new, co-evolving relationships with nature that move beyond human dominance, overconsumption and the disproportionate vulnerabilities that define current global conditions.

As a collective, the unit is committed to innovative design, collaborative learning and consultancy-based specialism, embracing calculated risks to rebuild ecologies. We cultivate individual design expertise, architectural intelligence and production techniques to generate new architectural aesthetics and ecological affects. Our iterative workflow navigates between physical, digital and visual mediums, integrating ecological inputs throughout the year. We foreground radical concepts and critical positions, moving beyond the traditional dialectic of rationalism and romanticism to embrace polemical architectural thinking. This year, together, we will make ecological marvels.