Systemic Sustainability - Master of Architecture Thesis

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Large version: size 12 font, 1.5 line spacing, 126 pages, single-sided.
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Systemic sustainability:
concepts and strategies for overcoming resource depletion and environmental degradation

Abstract

This thesis seeks to understand and find solutions to two of the most pressing problems in the contemporary world, resource depletion and environmental degradation, both of which are results of the massive and pervasive industrialisation of human activity. The thesis begins with a discussion of the successes and flaws of industrialism. Industrialism is a phenomenon that inherently optimises labour productivity and neglects future environmental constraints until they are unavoidably apparent. The result is that industrialism has simultaneously dramatically improved human prosperity and caused dramatic environmental damage. This thesis briefly summarises four fields of sustainability study that have emerged to address the shortcomings of industrialism, looking for ways to eliminate its propensity for environmental damage while retaining its ability to provide prosperity to humanity. The four fields are environmental economics, industrial ecology, sustainable urbanism and lean management, covering many facets of the phenomenon of industrialism and a diversity of concerns. A close look at the four fields reveals some commonalities in their assumptions and strategies, in particular: the need to maintain a whole-system perspective to avoid dysfunctional isolation that comes with the uncritical application of the division of labour; the use of networked modularity as an organisational principle to overcome rigid and unresponsive management hierarchies and to give systems the flexibility to change and adapt, and; the application of pervasive knowledge enabled by information technologies to better control processes and capture system externalities. These commonalities challenge the fundamental assumptions underlying industrialism, pointing towards a culture of systemic sustainability that will replace the existing culture of systemic consumerism. Finally, this thesis briefly discusses some outcomes that can be expected, should the ideas in this thesis be applied. As a whole, this thesis seeks to contribute to humanity’s transition from the current self-destructive form of industrialism to a form that is sustainable and viable in the long term.