The recognition that human behavior dominates the Earth’s atmosphere undermines our anthropocentric view that the world is ours to use. This in turn demands a radical revision of our view of ontology—of our understanding of being. The era of the dominance of subjects over objects has come to an end. Replaced by a flat ontology we can again ask the question: what is a thing? A question that in the past was always resolved by: what is its use value? But when by things we now include both humans and non-humans a new world emerges. For the designer the previously domesticated environment steps forth and we must now contend with its enigmatic character.

Lars Lerup is the Harry K. and Albert K. Smith Professor of Architecture and the Dean Emeritus at Rice School of Architecture, Houston Texas and Professor Emeritus of University of California at Berkeley. He was awarded Doctor honoris causa in technology by Lund University, Sweden in 2001. Born in Sweden he holds degrees in engineering (Sweden), architecture (UC Berkeley) and urban design (GSD, Harvard). Lerup has written several book: Villa Prima Facie 1976, Building the Unfinished 1977 (also published in German), Planned Assaults 1987 (also published in Chinese), After the City 2000, and some fifty essays in international magazines. Lerup’s art and design work includes drawings, paintings, architectural projects and competitions for new towns (Taipei, Taiwan), buildings, houses (California, Texas and Switzerland), and furniture. His work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Zurich, Moscow and Stockholm. His most recent book One Million Acres and No Zoning was published in 2010 by the Architectural Association, London. Lerup was elected Swedish American by Vasa Orden in 2004. He was the Harold W Brunner Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome 2009-2010.