Abstract

This paper connects two disciplinary areas to create new knowledge in the fields of sustainable housing and the analysis of the human body in time. The first knowledge area is that of sustainable housing, and how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the built environment. Currently, the construction industry in developed countries brings together multiple elements in a build site, all of which may contribute to climate change, and produce complex structures that can be hard to maintain in terms of environmental matters. In contrast, 3D printed houses are simpler, have lower emissions, and involve a straightforward process of creating an entirely new house on site. Further, 3D printed houses can be made from the very earth where the house is to be built. The caveat for 3D printed houses, is that the load bearing capacities of the walls can limit the size of construction, even though the design possibilities for 3D printed houses are augmented. The accompanying and interlocking aspect of this paper is the argument through history that the human body responds to the dictates of desire, here termed as ‘the phallocene’. The notion of the phallocene is derived from literature on the human body and desire that states that far from playing a merely irrational role in human life that is dominated by reason, desire creates worlds, and in the case of this paper, the world of the Anthropocene, a reality made by humans, and producing climate change. Hence, this paper conjoins two key concerns, arresting climate change, and understanding human behaviour through time as bodies.

Keywords 3D printed houses, the phallocene, climate change, human body, desire