Page 34 - JCAU-5-4

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Floral strategies for regenerative design

at the heart of their relationships, are companion species 3.1. Les Fleurs du Mal
for humans and other creatures (Haraway, 2003). As By associating flowers with the concept of evil, Charles
we navigate the complexities of choosing a companion Baudelaire’s poetry collection “Les Fleurs du Mal” (The
species, we must acknowledge the entanglements that Flowers of Evil) challenges conventional expectations
exist between all beings. We must consider the webs of about aesthetics and moral boundaries, contrasting
interdependence and mutual shaping that connect us to unconventional expressions of human passions with
our potential companions. To select a companion species normative notions of love, thereby exposing the complex
is to engage in a process of becoming-with, to form a and often contradictory nature of human desires.
relationship that transcends individuality and embraces Throughout the collection, Baudelaire’s vision of beauty
the hybridity of all beings. We must ask ourselves: What is intertwined with elements of decay, corruption, and
are the ethical implications of bringing a new being into sensuality. Flowers, often used as symbols of purity and
our world? How do our subjectivities and positionalities innocence, are here transformed into embodiments of
shape our desired relationships and how can the design desire and eroticism, highlighting the disconnection
process enable us to fully coexist with other beings between societal expectations and taboo or transgressive
that are not like us? How can we create conditions of individual impulses. The appeal of the transgressive for
flourishing for all beings involved through design? By Baudelaire emerges from the intersection of opposites,
engaging in a reflexive and relational process of decision- such as light and darkness, good and evil, pleasure and
making, we can navigate the complexities of choosing a pain, allowing him to explore the allure of forbidden
companion species in a way that acknowledges our mutual desires, the sensuality found within the realm of decay
interdependence and creates a more just and equitable and corruption, and ultimately to present beauty in the
world for all. Recognizing the status of flowering plants as
companion species in design promotes an ethical approach embrace of decadence. Beauty, for Baudelaire, arises from
by actively engaging them through designed encounters intense and individual experiences. Aesthetic appreciation
that are more sensitive to their needs and that ultimately, is thus subjective. A sense of awe and sublime beauty can
promote their flourishing to catalyze more sustainable be invoked by juxtaposing elements of beauty and horror.
th
and ethical relationships between humans and the natural Paris of the 19 century with its bustling streets, crowded
world. Elevating the status of angiosperms from resource, markets, social inequalities, and elegant architecture
or object — to co-constitutive agents, enables designers under threat of modernization is the ideal laboratory for
to develop a deeper connection with and responsibility Baudelaire to examine the impact of industrialization,
toward the natural world through the cultivation of values urbanization, and capitalism on human experience. His
and associated actions that foster a sense of responsibility focus on the transitional nature of beauty and mortality
towards actively promoting life on Earth. locates his poetic project in the pursuit of transient
experiences and fleeting moments. Baudelaire’s flowers
3. Findings metaphorically subvert conventions of beauty and morality,
celebrating in their stead more unconventional aspects of
Our investigations into the complex forms of flowers and attraction and desire, and challenging readers to question
the choreographies of space they devise and coordinate their own morality and understanding of the boundaries of
led the authors to design a robotically operated artificial human emotions.
flower mechanism for the Energy group exhibition at
CIVA , Brussels (October 2023 – January 2024). XENO, 3.2. Designing flowers beyond nature
1
the cyborg flower, was also inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s All experience of flowers is based on experimental
poetry collection “Les Fleurs du Mal” for reasons stated relationships with time. Some of these have evolved
below (Baudelaire, 1989).
spontaneously long before the arrival of humans while others
1 C I.II.III.IV. A Culture—Architecture (CIVA) is a museum, are detailed acts of cultivation. Our late arrival to address
library, archive and publisher that emphasizes Belgian the biodiversity crisis that typifies the unfolding sixth
architecture from the mid-19th to the 21st century. great extinction provides a powerful motivation to design
Created in 2016 at the initiative of the Brussels-Capital new kinds of flowers to draw together multiple, complex
Region, CIVA brings together within a single structure the ecosystems through an exquisite choreography of exchange.
resources, knowledge and know-how of several cultural By developing systems that both embody and are inspired
associations active in Brussels in the fields of architecture,
town planning, landscape, and the study of ecosystems: the by the biodiversity-promoting tactics of angiosperms, we
Archives d’Architecture Moderne, the René Pechère Library, may find new ways to build ecosystem relationships that
the Fonds pour l’architecture, the Paul Duvigneaud Centre can resist extreme weather challenges of weather, polluted
and CIVA asbl (now dissolved). environments, and carry out bioremediation (McCarty,

Volume 5 Issue 4 (2023) 5 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1006