Architecture and environmentalism beyond the pandemic

An interview between Dr Jon Goodbun and Thomas Lemon. EDITORIAL NOTE: When we first read this insightful interview, we were struck by the clarity with which Goodbun and Lemon were able to draw threads of connection between COVID-19 and the greater ecological crises of modern capitalism in which architecture is caught. Goodbun identifies in no uncertain terms the absolute necessity of action on environmental destruction even as the world convulses in the grips of pandemic. In this interview there is no disconnect between the reaction of global “disaster capitalism” to COVID-19, and to the environmental crises that come careening towards us. In both cases, capital exploits crisis towards its own ends, enrichment and misdirection from its own complicity. For us, is a chilling reminder of capitalism’s ability to, snakelike, distort its form to internalise and reclaim world-shaking crises as instruments of it’s own perpetuation. This interview is a powerful reminder of the intricate web of connections between capital’s destructive impulses and the environment-worlds that it ravages.