Beyond the Rationale of Reduction: Exploring a Deep Ecological Architectural Practice of Care

This article explores how contemporary sustainable architecture may transcend the dominant rationale of reduction by embracing a deeper ecological sensibility through the ethic of care. The study examines the architectural project Naturligrækkerne by Danish office Reværk, developed under the 4>1 Planet initiative for the 2023 UIA World Congress. Drawing on Joan Tronto’s moral framework of care, the aim is to analyze how care ethics can inform technology, material choices, and design processes. As such, the study advocates for a shift from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric worldview through concrete and critical practice, where relationality, adaptivity, and care responsivity offer new paths for sustainable architecture – an approach emphasizing the interconnectedness of humans and their environments in developing practices that are not only quantifiably sustainable but ecologically sensitive.