The Anthropocene Square Meter

This is a model of the average cumulative anthropogenic change to the earth’s surface. It was proposed by Jan Zalasiewicz, Emeritus Professor of Palacobiology at the University of Leicester. Zalasiewicz is known as one of the first people to put forward the idea of the Anthropocene as a geological epoch. In discussion with Zalasiewicz, THEMA has built the model for the first time. This is the first step towards a larger collaborative research project of representing the vast scale of anthropogenic impact on earth, in particular the contribution of construction to this change, including the rate of change and the stark difference in anthropogenic square meters in different areas of the world. The model is built at 1:1 scale as a globalized average using the actual materials that have most accumulated on the earth’s surface. The “Baugespanne” or “Gabarits” (building profiles) show the volume of anthropogenic CO₂. As such certain key changes are left out (absences left by extraction, meltwater, particulate matter like fly ash, radioactive materials, and so on), which future phases of the project will incorporate.