How to live in a Jungle

Making what is cold warm, what is humid dry, what is dark light: architecture has always strived to control climate, albeit in a rather clumsy and limited way. However, designing climate – which would have once been a feat of magic – has now become technically possible and is an increasingly fundamental aspect of the contemporary work of architects. The applications of these techniques to interior spaces are well known, so much so that architects often take for granted the idea that the post-modern city has become nothing but an immense air-conditioned interior. ¹ On the other hand, only a few projects have focused on the possibilities of climate control when it comes to open-air spaces, at least until recently. This is what Swiss architect Philippe Rahm and French paysagiste Catherine Mosbach ² are currently trying to do in Taichung, a city of 2.7 million people on the western coast of Taiwan. ³ The ground for this experiment is the Jade Eco Park, which the architects conceived as a series of haptic experiences rather than a traditional composition of vistas. Humidity, temperature, wind condition here become as important – indeed, more important – than colour and shape. The designers argued for the creation of microclimates as a smart solution to Taichung’s warm and humid subtropical climate which would normally impede the use of the park as a public space as happens in more temperate climates. ⁴ The ideas underlying the Jade Eco Park are not merely functional, however, and the project can also be read as an ideological statement against the long-standing architectural tradition of addressing sight before other senses. In this rediscovery of the non-visual, of the haptic, of the physical qualities of architecture there is a definite attempt to find new forms of agency – that is to say, of ways for the individual to act within and against his/her context.