The climate crisis calls us to immediate action. We are already seeing the effects of worsening weather conditions and migration caused by the changing climate, posing a threat to communities worldwide. Sustainable development requires a more balanced use of natural resources and a radical change from the current globalized consumeristic approach.
The future of our Past, published in 2019 by ICOMOS and the European Cultural Heritage Green Paper by Europa Nostra in 2021 argue that the needed change cannot be successful without considering the role of cultural heritage. We can learn a lot from the past, particularly from building cultures whose use of natural resources was more balanced and direct.
In his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ Pope Francis underlined that preserving our identity is closely connected to the history, culture and architecture of places but the progress of modernity has too swiftly separated us from the past. Uncritical belief in the promises of modernity has impacted many parts of the world where different cultures and different kinds of human relationships have been sacrificed in favor of those imposed by the West. Pope Francis called for “greater attention to local cultures when studying environmental problems, favoring a dialogue between scientific-technical language and the language of the people.”
The School of Architecture and the Michael Christopher Duda Center seek to activate research in this direction, to study local and regional building practices and identify those that are sustainable or can readily be rendered so with the help of current technological innovations.
The Duda Center is reaching out to other components of the University to identify and stimulate the extraordinary expertise available and promote a more interdisciplinary approach to research. At the end of the fall semester, Professor Paolo Vitti organized a meeting of over two dozen Notre Dame faculty, half from the School of Architecture and half from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, classics, engineering, physics, and sustainability studies. We discovered a strong interest in pursuing interdisciplinary research directions and these spontaneously arranged themselves around three central themes: Culture, Economy, and Technology. Participants agreed to study forming research teams to apply for University grant programs designed to encourage precisely this kind of interdisciplinary work. Follow up discussions and meetings are ongoing and future announcements of specific proposals are expected in the fall semester.
Contact: Associate Professor of the Practice Paolo Vitti