On the 2nd of July 2020, I graduated (online) with my ten-months-long research-by-design project in Landscape Architecture, “The Operating Venetian Lagoon: The Agency of Barene.”

In early November, Theo Deutinger led The Berlage Design Master Class, entitled "Living in Safe Mode: A Quest for the Essential." The premise of the master class was to identify the basic needs of a single person—housing, food, clothing, transportation, health, and education—in order to define a self-induced "safe mode" for humans. An exhibition of the results, entitled “Safe New World,” is currently on display in the Department of Architecture. Prior to this intensive fortnight, we had the opportunity to speak with Theo Deutinger. Overlooking the Alps, covered with the first snow of the year, he reflected upon his most recent work including the acclaimed Handbook of Tyranny and more recent Ultimate Atlas: Logbook of Spaceship Earth.

When considering typologies of the built environment, a few spring to mind: The church, the house, the library, the graveyard… these all together provide for a diverse experience when departing the home. Different typologies carry not only diverse formal characteristics but they house specific experiences unique to their formal qualities.