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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Storytelling in regenerative architecture

(XENO) (Armstrong et al., 2023a) was exhibited from and interdisciplinary research. This incorporates expressive
October 13, 2023, to March 17, 2024, as a commissioned objects such as experiential artifacts and performative
artwork for the POWER exhibition at the leading practices. I have taught Master’s and Ph.D. courses in
architectural venue CIVA Gallery in Brussels. 4 creative and critical writing across art, architecture, and
Design involves storytelling, yet designers rarely put design practices, covering themes such as art writing;
much thought into crafting their narratives. As a result, architecture and/as storytelling (and vice versa); critical
presentations and pitches are often a chronology of “voice(s)”; materiality and genre; site-specific writing;
interests, intentions, and compromises, accompanied by sound art; the prose poem and the boundaries of genre; the
images of work-in-progress. This represents an account philosophical dialogue; ekphrasis; and the role of language
of the architectural process and production told from a in conceptual art. I have led workshops that investigate how
narrow, human perspective, one that legitimizes its aims by the characteristics of literary, critical, and philosophical
excluding other points of view, perspectives, and interests genres of inquiry shape relationships to spatial, (im)
(see, for example, Crutzen & Stoermer, 2000). material, and experiential practices through materialized
descriptions, installations, performances, philosophical
This paper argues that storytelling should have a central dialogues, and critical poetics. This helps us rethink the
role in regenerative architecture due to its unique capacity relationship between critical and creative practice through a
to model the complexities of relations between humans, the close engagement with genre and style and related questions
built environment, and the natural world. Narrative helps of voice, subjectivity, point-of-view,spatiality, perspective,
us envision a more sustainable and resilient future; yet, its embodiment, and materiality. Over the past 5 years, I have
5
potential remains under-explored. My written, spoken, been developing the potential of (written, spoken, video,
and performed narratives create structures through which and performative) narrative to address the challenges of
multiple worlds and values are navigated. These are not living on a damaged planet and have published several
didactic but seek to provide tools for uncovering latent speculative fictions on this theme (Hughes, 2018; 2023).
micro-stories, thereby creating multiple, decolonializing
perspectives, voices, and relations to complex events and Citing examples of relevant narratives from a range
situations. In my artistic and research practices, I explore of regions and cultures, the paper provides a reading
an extended notion of writing — creative and critical forms of Kafka’s last story, The Burrow, from a regenerative
alike — to address the wider concept of exposition in artistic architecture perspective. To demonstrate that stories have
always developed through re-telling other stories (part
4 XENO is an installation featuring a chimeric plant hybrid of the regenerative characteristic of narrative itself), the
composed of mechanical and animal parts, drawing paper additionally makes a strategic switch to “showing
energy from silts and mosquitoes that feed on human rather than telling” by offering a contemporary adaptation
blood. This challenges our understanding of natural of Kafka’s story through an original story written by the
energy, emphasizing that it is a precious exchange between
living bodies, not a value-free resource. Natural energy author for this special issue of the Journal of Chinese
involves constant negotiation between living organisms, Architecture and Urbanism (JCAU), titled The Bungalow.
operating through metabolism — essentially a continuous
transfer of electrons between different bodies. 2. Why storytelling?
In the modern world, energy has been commodified,
stripped of its inherent complexity. Industrial society’s Storytelling has been used throughout history to express
use of fossil fuels transforms long-deceased organic wonder, share information, affirm or question values, and
matter into seemingly limitless power, elevating give voice to doubts and beliefs. It can help communicate
humans to quasi-divine status by animating machines. the goals, values, and vision of an architectural project to
However, this process severely depletes natural
resources, endangering our future. XENO’s intricate a wider audience, inspiring and engaging people, building
energy exchange not only animates the plant but also community, and fostering a sense of connection to the natural
implicates us in the ethical dilemmas and processes world. Storytelling can model desirable (or undesirable)
of (re)vitalization within an “alien” energy ecosystem futures and facilitate discussions among its listeners or
(Armstrong et al., 2023b). Additional information about readers about its interpretation. In this way, the values of a
the exhibition is available at https://civa.brussels/en/
exhibitions-events/power (accessed on January 9, 2024). community are celebrated, configured, or contested.
In addition to codeveloping the concept, I authored
Xeno’s Song and, in collaboration with Rachel 5 Eminent researchers such as Jane Rendell, Katja
Armstrong, the story Xeno: The Tale of a Misfit. The Grillner, and Sepideh Karami have developed parallel
narratives were recorded and embedded in the sound initiatives through site specific writing, dialogic
design, which is audible through headphones at the architectural theory, writing practices, and critical
gallery. Access to the texts is provided here: https:// fiction as political practices of making architectural
xenoenergy.wixsite.com/xeno spaces.

Volume 6 Issue 2 (2024) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1335