Towards a Practice of Non-Human Design
2017 | Graduate Thesis Proposal | Architecture and Biopolitics
Advisors | Susie Coston, National Shelter Director of Farm Sanctuary
Department of Interior Architecture Adaptive Reuse
Rhode Island School of Design

Within the inevitable gaps left behind by accelerated forms of agricultural development Non-Human-Animals that escape or exceed the biopolitical trap are often in need of care and alternative institutional spaces that are unable to accommodate their unique needs. Mediating this transition through architecture, designed not for merely human concerns, by way of adapting existing materials (and spatial modes) leftover from previous forms of economic production, creates an interesting set of problems for Non-Human Design. 

To fully think through the consequences of Non-Human-Centric design, we must reframe the fundamental concept of what defines architecture as a practice part and parcel of larger ecologies. Non-Human Design is not simply a point of view considering the non-human within architectural discourse. My site – The Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York, poses an interesting problem to think through a multi-client model of design, both human and non-human.