Domesticated Exterior

Abstract

Human intention of domesticating nature has never stopped， projecting an anthropocentric imagination onto their surrounding, shaping the land and non-humans living in it to their own advantage. The architecture of domestication has been at the center of such acts of captivity. We build fences around farms to keep certain animals away, and coops and stables to keep certain animals in; we turn forests into non-forests and only prescribe certain species to grow in. When we talk about buildings for animals, we normally associate them with captivity and hostility, yet we forget the original intention we build, which was to protect and nurture. To be a human is to share space with other species; to build is to build for humans and other animals. To question the anthropocentric relationship with nature, the project aims to reverse the role of architecture from a tool of confinement to an instrument of rewilding, engaging the human presence in a way that stops to manage nature, and allows nature to take on its own course. And as we imagine the indispensable future of multi-species co-living, we confront the reality that this must go beyond the confines of human imagination.