Samenvatting

Inaugural speech of Peter van Assche, professor Architecture & Circular Thinking, deliverd on 12 December 2019 .

In the Architecture & Circular Economy research group at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, I want to go on a journey in order to find new ways of thinking. Not to return as a misanthrope, but rather to formulate a new logic for our society. By examining and questioning the implicit assumptions in our thinking, I hope to chance upon a system logic that is better equipped for the problems of today and the future than traditional models. A new system logic will help us find better methods for building and design processes. We are going to test the new methods with design-based research, on the basis of concrete assignments, so we can examine whether our own hypotheses for a new system logic really holds water.

The Architecture & Circular Thinking research group wants to work towards the Arcadian
Anthropocene. That is to say that it wants to formulate answers to social questions by using circular thinking in this world’s most beautiful profession, namely designing our space: architecture