The Eco-Porn Competition

Reality Cues is conducting a series of competitions that will investigate tropes in architectural representation. We will explore the techniques and conventions that architects rely on to communicate ideas concerning space, form and use, with a special concentration on the visualization of contemporary social values systems. By conducting competitions we hope to amass a collection of exemplary tropes, analyze their value, and disseminate them back to be exploited smartly and with precision.  

The first competition will explore the phenomenon commonly known as Eco-Porn.

One of the foremost responsibilities of architects today is to address the issue of sustainability. For some, this expectation has inspired the design of ingenious biological and renewable energy systems; for others, it has created pressure to make architecture that merely looks sustainable, aka eco-porn. Both categories use the same representational tropes to proclaim a message of greenness and social responsibility, allowing the latter to proliferate unchecked. What is it about these tropes that allow us to trick others and ourselves into believing that what looks sustainable is sustainable? Is there value in delusion?

Reality Cues wants your help in identifying these tropes and exploring what makes them tick. Be cynical yet reverent. This exercise requires a critical mind, but only those that truly delight in the possibilities of architecture will win the day. Good luck!

DELIVERABLES:
Step 1: Give your trope a title
Step 2: Explain how it works and why it is in use in 140 characters or less
Step 3: Produce the most provocative image of your trope to support your claim. All formats welcome (rendering, collage, diagram, sketch, model, etc.)

Here are some trope ideas to help get the juices flowing. Feel free to use one of these or (preferably) invent your own: organic shapes, lawn as wallpaper, "put a tree on it", use of energy harvesters (photovoltaics, windmills, etc.), bucolic context, oases, futuristic garden cities, sunshine, farming, urban farming, secret garden, ruins, logos, use of the word ‘green’, use of the color green.

More info at http://realitycues.com/tropes/the-eco-porn-competition/