SUSTAINING PUBLICS AND THEIR SPACES: WILLIAM LIM'S WRITINGS ON ARCHITECTURE AND SPACE

The dilemma of ‘order-words’ according to Gilles Deleuze is that it not only defines a problem but also over-determines the answers to that problem. For Deleuze, the order-word simultaneously refers to a word that constitutes a command, as well as one which creates its own universe of order. In this sense, society's ‘order-words’ ultimately control not only how we can articulate a problem (our forms of expression), but also restricts what we can know (our forms of content). Recently, ‘sustainability’ has been circulating as the order-word of the moment both in architectural academia and in practice. An important concept which rallies around the urgent protection, continuity and cultivation of our rapidly depleting natural resources, ‘sustainability’ is subsequently associated with specific tools, methods and outcomes which are used to preserve the natural world…