Labor Histories and Carbon Futures

The link between construction labor and the effects of carbon upon climate and globalized labor forces is not central to architectural education. The next ten years of curriculum design in the Department of Architecture (DoArch) at South Dakota State University posits that long-term carbon management should be tied to core educational strategies. This paper outlines a proposed theory sequence that connects the production of architecture with the ongoing global movement and displacement of people. Long-term carbon management strategies and the history of people’s movement across the world are linked through four required classes: Drawing Architecture, Reading Architecture, Writing Architecture, and Practicing Architecture. By positioning carbon footprints beyond technological deterministic outcomes, the relationship between carbon management and the politics of construction labor are foregrounded in the DoArch curriculum.