This session proposes a place-conscious-poetic approach to web design, combining appropriate technologies, nature-responsive thinking, and architectural critique.
Echoing warnings from architecture of the dangers of flattening natural sites into “placelessness” mirrors the metaphysical abstraction of the cloud, where the internet, though powered and crafted by natural resources, remains disconnected from its material origins. Drawing on the ethos of the Arts and Crafts movement, this talk reimagines the role and revival of the webmaster as an attuned maker—shaping digital spaces that are responsive to local context, climate, and material realities.
Inspired by Greene & Greene’s site-specific designs, we will explore how web interfaces can reflect natural rhythms, such as dimming at night, resting with the grid, or responding to air quality. The aim is to envision a digital future that lives in place, rather than a disconnected metaphysical abstraction, the cloud.