Berstrand, T., Djalali, A., Hoskyns, T., Wash Ivanovic, G., Westermann, C., 2026.

Architecture After the House: Five Points for a Sustainable Practice

Critiquing the substance ontological perspectives prevalent in Europe and North America, this paper proposes to shift the focus of attention to aesthetic experiences that are grounded in the processes of everyday living. Employing the methodological device of a speculative gesture introduced by Dider Debaise and Isabelle Stengers , the paper initiates a conversation between ancient Asian thought and contemporary decolonial approaches to sustainability. The first is marked by its relational perspective towards dynamic worlds, the second and third by a commitment to everyday care-practice and attention to conceptual openness for emerging pluriversal presents. The paper emphasizes designing as a process of integration through speculation and presents an architectural theory for sustainability in five suggestive gestures : weaving a beginning, connecting threads, framing use, reframing modesty, and cultivating landscape. Conceived by five authors, the text embeds care for designing within writing and affirms the relevance of the concept of a pluriverse towards a theory of sustainable architecture. In its conclusion, the paper calls for urgent reflection and a transition to an architecture that nurtures landscapes of becoming and engages in the entangling of nature and culture.