Humanity has reached an ecological brink and against this daunting horizon, architecture’s environmental response, focused largely on building technology and techno-optimism, has failed. The climate crisis is intensifying unabated, in part because architecture, as both a discipline and a practice, continues to replicate the spatial, cultural, and material patterns that constitute an energy-intensive way of life. Following the conceptual framework of Log 47: Overcoming Carbon Form, an issue that repositions architecture’s ecological impact within a spatial discourse, Confronting Carbon Form lays bare architecture’s place at the center of carbon modernity. Without this challenge to our dominant modes of thought, architecture will be unable to address the climate crisis, and so, as a necessary first step to overcoming carbon form, this exhibition curates a series of artifacts that exemplify carbon form, providing a direct confrontation with the spatial paradigm that must be supplanted and transformed.

Stanley Cho is cofounder of Outside Development. His works have shown at international film festivals such as Chicago and Oberhausen. He studied at University of California, Los Angeles Design Media Arts and Yale School of Architecture. He has project managed and designed various architecture-related installations, including projects underwritten by the Seoul Architecture Biennale and Orleans Architecture Biennale.

Elisa Iturbe is a critic at the Yale School of Architecture (YSoA), where she coordinates the dual-degree program between YSoA and the Yale School of the Environment. She is also assistant professor adjunct at The Cooper Union where she teaches studio, formal analysis, and a course on carbon form. Her writings have been published in Log, Perspecta, New York Review of Architecture, and Dearq, in addition to forthcoming work in AA Files. Most recently she guest-edited Log 47, titled “Overcoming Carbon Form,” a sold-out issue dedicated to redefining the relationship between architectural form and climate change. She also cowrote a book with Peter Eisenman titled Lateness. In addition, she is cofounder of Outside Development, an architectural practice.

Alican Taylan is an architectural designer and critic. He is a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute's graduate architecture and urban design department. His texts and drawings have been published in several journals such as Log and Plat. His design work was exhibited at the 2014 Monaco Yacht Show, Pratt Institute’s Siegel Gallery, and he contributed to the 2018 Turkish pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He has participated in and contributed to public events in France, Indonesia, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, and the United States. In the past, he worked in the offices of Peter Eisenman and Shigeru Ban, and currently practices with Thomas Leeser