Forum on the Nature of Enclosure

Jeffrey S. Nesbit and Shawn Rickenbacker come together to discuss the upcoming book, Nature of Enclosure (Actar Publishers, 2022). In this forum, topics and themes challenge historical episodes of the enclosed environment and reflect on its cultural impact in contemporary society.

From Crystal Palace in 1851 to Buckminster Fuller’s Spaceship Earth in 1969, nature became enclosed. Claimed to be a reaction of Norbert Weiner’s cybernetics, Fuller’s geodesic domes became symbols of American counterculture. Yet, from Fuller’s description of Spaceship Earth “sea masters,” the dome seems to prioritize an environment of occupation inside the dome, over those residing outside–a world of civilized control on its interior and wilderness, war, and wasteland on the other side. Nature of Enclosure is a series of conversations to gather experts from a range of disciplines, including architects, landscape architects, historians, design theory scholars, geographers, historians of science and technology, and professionals at the intersection of architecture and the environment. “Forum on the Nature of Enclosure” is convened by Shawn Rickenbacker and Jeffrey S. Nesbit.

Contributing Authors:
Antoine Picon, Lydia Kallipoliti, Jordan Bimm, Aleksandra Jaeschke, Fred Scharmen, Rachel Armstrong, David Salomon, Mae-ling Lokko, Daniel Barber, Kathy Velikov, Geoffrey Thün, Daisy Ames, Galo Canizares, Mariano Gomez Luque, Shawn Rickenbacker, Ersela Kripa, Stephen Mueller, Joël Vacheron, Julia Smachylo, Joshua Nason, and Mishuana Goeman.

 

SPEAKERS

Jeffrey S. Nesbit

Jeffrey S. Nesbit is an architect, urbanist, founding director of the research group Grounding Design, and recently received his Doctor of Design degree (DDes) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His work focuses on processes of urbanization, infrastructure, and the evolution of “technical lands.” Currently, Nesbit’s research examines the 20th-century American spaceport complex at the intersection of architecture, infrastructure, and aerospace history. He has written several journal articles and book chapters on infrastructure, urbanization, and the history of technology, and is co-editor of New Geographies 11 Extraterrestrial (Actar, 2019), Rio de Janeiro: Urban Expansion and Environment (Routledge, 2019), Chasing the City: Models for Extra-Urban Investigations (Routledge, 2018), and host of Nature of Enclosure, a podcast series on urbanNext. He currently holds the H. Deane Pearce Endowed Chair in the College of Architecture at Texas Tech University.

 

Shawn Rickenbacker

Shawn Rickenbacker serves as Director of the J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures at Spitzer and is a published and award-winning designer, entrepreneur and educator in the design and technology fields. As an experienced creative and technologist, he continues to work at the convergence of digital and physical space and its relationship to human interaction and experience. His work concentrates on the research, design and development of context aware environments that productively enhance humans’ interactions with each other and their evolving digital world. Through deep insight and high impact innovations, he seeks to create value by solving compelling problems using technology.

Shawn has emerged from a diverse geographic as well as professional background having held design positions in the US and London, lecturing in Waterloo, Helsinki and Tokyo and conducting research in South Africa. His work has been exhibited internationally and featured on Fast Company Co.Exist, CNN, The New York Times and GA Global Architecture.