Students of Architecture as Environmental Activists (original) (raw)

2022, Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960–1980

You must change your attitude, if your grandchildren are to survive. This is just a small selection of the messages featuring on the posters, in the catalogue and on various pamphlets of the 1968 exhibition So What (Än sen då) made by students of architecture from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. These messages, as well as the images on the posters such as emaciated children, dying birds, mountains of waste, smoking chimneys, dead bodies and people begging for help, were meant to disquiet the public and create a sense of urgency for the environmental problems such as global injustice, population growth and pollution of the planet. Next to the photocollages, there was another category of visuals in the form of infographics. These were simple diagrams in the colours black, white, grey and red, representing scientific and statistical facts such as humanity's narrow life margin on earth, the distribution of water area versus arable and non-arable land on earth, or the presence of industrial pollution in the air, water, plants, fish and humans. The intended disquieting effect of the posters was further enhanced by a sound installation and in addition a claustrophobic room with mirrors all around. The sound installation-a sound recording of water dripping into a tin basket three times per second-was connected to a numeric counter which displayed and updated the population growth of the moment: The clock is ticking, the numbers rush past in front of the astonished spectator. […] In six hours close to 60,000 new mouths to feed in a starving world. […] After all these stunning facts-still haunted by the threatening ticking of the counter-one enters the experience room. A darkness filled with mirrors. Here is the person who is the spectator himself. (C.A. 1968, 14) The confrontational woman-in-the-mirror dark room made by Pietro Raffone was unfortunately only to be seen during the beginning of the exhibition as the installation 3 Students of Architecture as Environmental Activists Two Sister Exhibitions about the Environmental Crisis in Sweden and Norway, 1968-1969