The Ecological Culture of the Project: A Critical Vision

The last decades witnessed an unexpected spread of the concept of sustainability. This phenomenon has also involved the urban and architectural design field for its obvious and known environmental impact. This cultural process, undoubtedly positive, is leaving a trace in our time more than others. It is leading to a growing awareness of the environmental problem, to an ever-wider diffusion of new design approaches and new technologies and to a significant reduction in energy consumption and polluting emissions. However, this same cultural process has exponentially accelerated over the last decades, partly because of emergency circumstances, causing an extreme simplification of its content and a subsequent rise in false beliefs. An example is the belief that the direction towards environmental culture is going is unambiguous and commonly shared. The following essay is a reflection on this false belief and its possible consequences.