An Architect's Journey Mastering Future Trends In the Anthropocene

"An Architect's Journey - Mastering Future Trends in the Anthropocene" is a journey into the future of architecture and mastering the Anthropocene's dangerous forces. The book demonstrates how architects and building professionals can lead the way to overcome climate change and the related perils of the Anthropocene by mastering future trends in the design domain. Captivating narratives show how architects can shift their emphasis from aesthetic object-making to meaningful and extraordinary achievement by understanding society's needs and expectations as they critically address the book's thesis.

Throughout the book, Larry Wolff details compelling realities and provides invaluable strategies and tools to master future outcomes. This is a comprehensive guide and textbook written from an architect's perspective to help solve and transcend today's daunting global complexities. It supersedes past green case studies, checklist-driven sustainability recipe books and instead establishes ways to move the profession forward in profound and meaningful ways. Few established architects become authors, and even fewer write about architecture in ways that both demand and inspire change in the design domain. The result is a detailed compendium revealing the 26 trends challenging the profession giving readers new approaches and potential solutions to shape the future of the built environment. No other book addresses this need.

After graduating in 1974, Larry Wolff founded his firm, eventually recognized first as Wolff Lang Christopher and then WLC Architects. As founder and senior principal of WLC, Wolff's portfolio includes nationally recognized green building and civic architecture, featuring 50 combined national, state, and regional design awards. At WLC, Wolff was primarily the principal in charge of designing and constructing over 300 community and educational facilities, civic buildings, and public safety projects. Together in 2001, Wolff and WLC's ownership group founded Construction Professional Management (CPMcrew)—a construction management company specializing in building schools and municipal buildings. At the time, WLC was one of the few architectural firms to construct public school districts and municipal projects. Consequently, Wolff's leadership contributed to the firm's combined portfolio reflected an estimated $18 billion of built work, supported by four regional offices and a staff of over 100 people. More recently, in 2021, WLC merged with the Texas-based firm PBK Architects to become PBK-WLC.

During this time, Wolff left his position in 2010 to write about architecture. Believing he could potentially have a greater impact on the profession by writing instead of making more buildings triggered his decision to become an author. In "An Architect's Journey - Mastering Future Trends in the Anthropocene", Wolff shares his work and the knowledge gained from a vibrant career in architectural design and practice and forecasts emerging trends and forces shaping the profession's future. At its heart, the narrative's core purpose is to show how architecture can help overcome climate change and related anthropogenic threats by transitioning from resource-consuming endeavors to resource-producing enterprises. While selected works from over 150 international architects illustrate the 26 key determinations of future professional practice, the book aptly avoids ambiguous discussions of theoretical debate to prudently focus on what, rather than how architects must design to meet oncoming human and environmental needs. The writing approach, atypical of most books about architecture, combines 35 years of personal insight, experience, and technical knowledge and merges it with over 11 years of research. As a result, Wolff produces an unconventional, academic-level textbook that reads like an autobiographical novel.