Publication

  • Antarctic Resolution
    Giulia Foscari and UNLESS
    Editors
    Lars Müller Publishers, 2021
  • GRANTEE
    Giulia Foscari
    GRANT YEAR
    2021

“Antarctic Resolution,” edited by Giulia Foscari / UNLESS (Lars Müller Publishers, 2021). Courtesy UNLESS. Photo: Copyright Delfino Sisto Legnani

Accounting for approximately ten percent of the land mass of planet Earth, the Antarctic is a global commons we collectively neglect. Far from being a pristine natural landscape, the continent is a contested territory which conceals resources that might prove irresistible in a world with ever-increasing population growth. The 26 quadrillion tons of ice accumulated on its bedrock, equivalent to around seventy percent of the fresh water on the planet, represent at once the most significant repository of scientific data available, providing crucial information for future environmental policies, and the greatest menace to global coastal settlements threatened by the rise in sea levels induced by anthropogenic global warming. Advocating the construction of a high-resolution image, focusing on the continent’s unique geography, unparalleled scientific potential, geopolitical significance, experimental governance system, and extreme inhabitation model, Antarctic Resolution launches a platform in which citizens can undertake a true Antarctic resolution and engage in a unanimous effort—independent of any one nation—to shape the future of the Antarctic and, in turn, of our planet.

Giulia Foscari is an architect, researcher and writer who has been practicing in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. She is the founder of UNA, an architecture studio focused on cultural projects, and of its alter ego UNLESS, a nonprofit agency for change devoted to interdisciplinary research on extreme environments. Foscari’s experience includes an extensive collaboration with Rem Koolhaas's Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), which began in Hong Kong and led her to run OMA’s South American platform, and with Zaha Hadid Architects. She is partner of the architecture office FWR Associati, and member of the International Council of the The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her work was exhibited in multiple editions of the Venice Biennale. Foscari taught at Hong Kong University and at the Architectural Association, where she ran a Diploma Unit and founded The Polar Lab. Foscari authored award-winning Elements of Venice (Lars Müller Publishers, 2014), and is the editor of Antarctic Resolution (Lars Müller, 2021).