ABSTRACT
This essay stems from the position that, for designers and theorists of the built environment, climate change should be understood as a new medium—a new set of atmospheric and material conditions—redefining spatiotemporal relationships between beings and environments. Among many other challenges, this emerging medium requires constructing new aesthetic ideas because previous ones have become obsolete. A unique aesthetic sensibility is necessary to capture the experience of buildings, cities, and landscapes altered by climate change. Otherwise, we risk misunderstanding and misaddressing its atmospheric and material qualities.
