EPOCHALYPSE

The Age of the Plasticene
Epochalypse, imagined by Hannah Seppi
brought to you with the help of Karen Lange

produced in Studio 400
disclaimer:
this was born in the middle of a pandemic
amidst the reign and collapse of the Tr*mp administration, so bear with me

the toxic relationship everyone warned you about

The problem with plastic is a problem with us. Misuse and abuse are the real issues when it comes to plastic waste. That being said, humanity has made its bed with this formidable material. We are in too deep. There is no ‘fixing’ this problem, there is no resolution at the end of this story. If we stopped using plastic tomorrow there would still be far too much plastic than fathomable. Not only is the sheer amount in existence concerning, but excessive consumption will never disappear. The American Dream was built on this holier than thou, what’s mine is mine mentality and has inflated our egos beyond repair. Consumerism drives the plastic industry both on the consumer’s end as well as on the producer’s. This is why we have a plastic problem. It’s not ‘poor waste management’ or ‘developing countries lack of care’, it’s fat countries like the US and those in Europe choosing their own gratification over the life of others and the life of our planet. 
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Sociocultural desires have become more and more absurd, indicating that multicolored Tupperware, thrice packaged Amazon purchases, and plastic filters for once-filtered water are necessary. The subsequent consequences for these ‘luxuries’ are the tolls on the natural environment, ecosystems, and ourselves. We are all complicit in this. 
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This thesis does not aim to propose a definite solution to the plastic problem simply because I believe we are past the point of irreversible damage. I’ll even go as far as to say we do not deserve a ‘simple fix’. We must come face to face with our dirty doings. What remains is only the option of management. We cannot get rid of the mass amount, but we can attempt to deal with it. For so long we have lived by ‘out of sight, out of mind’, well not anymore. Karma has arrived and she’s in the form of plastic waste baby.
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Everyone warned you about this. Even your grandmother.

how did we get here?

it all started when

The downfall of humanity was born into the American dream. Festered in it was an intermixing of hope, innovation, and greed. The collapse of life as you presently know it came quicker than expected, but not without warning. This catastrophe was different from other civilizations you have learned about in your history books because the consequences of the collective population were not only predictable but predicted. The wars amongst the nations brought many forms of technology and forged twentieth-century style records and twenty-first-century styled electronic records. Therefore this event was also unlike any other because it was so well documented, almost to a fault, making its journey that much harder to comprehend. 
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What I mean by the ‘downfall of humanity’ directly translates to the downfall of the west. It was truly the greed which first world countries were built on that was also their Achille’s heel. 
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Downfall or collapse in this discourse is defined not as total decimation but as loss of purpose or without the ability to sustain. 
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The laws of physics say every action has its reaction. By that logic, human actions have always had ecological effects. It wasn’t until the Anthropocene, the current geological age, that human activity became the dominant influence on climate and the environment.‍

Plastic is one of the most ubiquitous materials known to man and among the most pervasive pollutants on Earth. It became inescapable, present in all aspects of human experience and daily life. Oddly enough, plastics were initially a waste product oil companies could either pay to dispose of responsibly or they could turn them into a new product. This was the fundamental element that propelled the plastic industry into what it is today.
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The history of plastics began over 30 million years ago when intense heat, natural chemical changes, and tremendous pressures created by the shifting of Earth’s crust formed petroleum and leftover coal tar. This discovery was only the beginning; due to the availability of the raw materials, the refining process commenced.

However, this technology didn’t get its start until World War II, when the military realized how versatile it truly was. Nationwide construction of factories ensued for this mass-scale production. Our soldiers were equipped with plastic helmets and water-resistant vinyl raincoats. Pilots were protected by plexiglass windshields and nylon parachutes. After the war, these companies searched for a new market to sell their plastic products and turned their attention towards consumer goods. Plastics began to replace other materials in all branches of consumption, especially the packaging industry. Suddenly, plastic was everywhere. It went from protecting our troops to protecting our food; nylon went from the skies to our thighs. Not only were we dressed in plastic, our homes filled with plastic, but our leftovers were wrapped in it, our trash concealed by it. People went absolutely crazy for the stuff. Toothbrushes, fabrics, tires, cosmetics, insecticides, car parts, construction materials, and the list go on and on. Magazine advertisements and television commercials were littered with fantasies about the ‘wonders’ of plastic. The wartime mentality we had fostered, “use it up, wear it out, make do or do without,” was no longer. Everywhere you looked was plastic.

1945/ After widespread austerity during the great depression and World War II, the expanding plastics industry embraced a message of “buy more” and, in turn, produced more. There became just as many types of plastic as there were woods and metals.

This is where our addiction began. Our new throwaway culture fell in love with single-use plastics and didn’t worry about the consequences.

the american scheme

During the ’60s, global plastic production increased by over four hundred percent; by 1979, we produced more plastic than steel.4 Think about that; that is an enormous boom. It begs the question of who was leading such a trend? Ninety-nine percent of what goes into plastic is fossil fuels, so unsurprisingly, yet was very surprising to most, the same companies producing plastics were also providing your car with gasoline. Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Conico, DowDuPont, and Phillips were all leaders in the chemical, oil, and gas industries. 

Everyone was pro-plastic. It was cheaper for companies to produce, and it was cheaper for consumers to purchase. Win-win, right? Not exactly. If America knows one thing, she knows greed. 

Or should I say ‘he’.

Of course, the industry’s eyes bulged at the potential of massive profit. No business venture as grand as this presents itself without causing at least one party to cut themselves a bigger slice. Like every enterprise in America, each company competed against one another, trying to win the consumer’s dollar. The result? We convinced ourselves that what came from this culture was a “higher standard of living, the secret to making America the best country on the whole planet.” However, in reality, what emerged was dirty plastic, slimy politics, and a voracious public.

blasé blasé blasé

The end of the war returned soldiers home to a country somewhat different than the one they had left. Not only did nationwide construction ensue, but wartime production had helped pull America’s economy out of a depression. From the later part of the ‘40s, young adults experienced a more significant surge in their spending capability than ever before. The job market was booming, and wages increased along with it. This attribute, paired with the lack of consumer goods enjoyed during combat, brought a massive spike in consumption and paved the way for your consumerist society. 
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This also wasn’t the only boom happening; these young adults were starting families at unprecedented rates. Everyone was hyped up on nationalism, procreating in the name of America: The Greatest Country on Earth! We helped liberate Europe from communist rule, and for that, we will continue the great work! Off to the suburbs, we go!

This is where the term ‘boomer’ comes from, something you most likely use when your parents try to zoom in on Instagram. Their generation was a real piece of work, for this and many other things are addressed later on.

The addiction was fed. The American consumer was praised as a ‘patriotic citizen,’ contributing to the ultimate success of the American way of life. People invested in household items more than others, features to improve their peacetime living. Initially, items like televisions, cars, refrigerators, toasters, vacuum cleaners, and washing machines were in high demand. The trek to suburbia required automation and caused a surge of 21 million automobiles purchased in the late ‘40s. Succeeding were televisions. American’s of all income brackets bought around five million TV sets a year. Alongside its late-night comedy, children’s programs, and sporting events came a new way for advertisers to reach inside everyone’s home. 
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The idea of advertisement had been around for some time, employed initially to promote trade since pre-colonial America. However, your present-day aggressive and targeted form of advertisement emerged around the turn of the century. For that time, the operating principle was “the term consumer in the English language has a gender, and it is feminine.” This mantra was governed by the knowledge that upwards of 80% of small consumer purchases were done by women. At this point, gender roles were stricter and more rigid than ever. Men were the workers, the advertisers, and women were the homemakers, the consumers. Because of this, most advertisements were directed towards women.


Fast forward to those boomers’ adult years; many critics looked with dismay at what American society had become. The shopping mall ranked only behind the home and work as the place where Americans spent their time. Children began to denote large department stores as the most imposing monuments they recognized. The architecture had become the pinnacle of social arenas while the bustling energy that surrounded blurred the line between consumption and entertainment. Consumption became a front for suppressed emotions. Shopping was described in the same language as drug and alcohol abuse.

Advertisements convinced us that consumption was the answer to life’s problems. To get in-shape, purchase this new exercise video with this jacked guy and skinny girl on the cover. To live a healthy lifestyle, read this book of ‘revolutionary tips.’ To fit in, here are the top three fashion trends you must have in your closet this coming summer. Women’s magazines had to offer self-help tips in the gossip columns, urging the reader not to compensate for things with conspicuous consumption. The amusement people experienced from unnecessary spending was mad. This behavior was only previously seen by Berliners, sixty years prior— the city’s transition to a booming metropolis brought with its malls and a greedy fascination. The physical foundation of individuals in the metropolis was the intensification of nervous life, resulting from the rapid and uninterrupted fluctuation of external and internal impressions. In contrast to the “slower, more customary, more uniformly flowing rhythm” of small-town life, the modern metropolis confronted its inhabitants with a dizzying variety of sensations.8 The human consciousness came to be shaped in a uniquely modern tone, adopting the blasé outlook’s title.

bla·​sé | \ blä-ˈzā \adjective1: apathetic to pleasure or excitement as a result of excessive indulgence or enjoyment

But we did not learn from our empty purchases, nor did we take the advice from those columns. Instead, we consumed, again and again, each time inventing a more backward excuse for why the previous purchase fell short of satisfaction. 
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What we failed to realize was that every act of consumption was coupled with an act of waste. And what separated us from Berliners was our love for single-use. Single-use plastics are a glaring example of the problem with throwaway culture. A straw with our iced coffee, a plastic bag to carry your takeout, the wrapper on a candy bar; taken individually, each seem harmless. These modern amenities are as easy to throw out as they are to use. So much so that they hardly register in our minds. Instead of investing our money in quality goods, we prioritized convenience over durability. Something we view as the ‘cheaper option’ ironically is something we will be paying off for millennia.

The plastic problem is most definitely a Western problem.

your future is waiting

Unlike most architecture projects, this thesis did not begin with a site, but rather with observations of an American industry. In this case, the condition studied is how information regarding plastic production and waste is presented to society in order to skew the reality. The observation of the plastic lifecycle gives way to a categorical understanding of crisis. One of two categories of crises are the characters continually present with each new phase. In this study, the characters are 01:Big Oil, 02:Consumerist Societies, and the fourth “R” of reduce, reuse, and recycle which is 03:Refusal. Their self-indulged nature comments on blind faith and ignorance as a robotic mechanism for the United State’s extreme circumstance. Their counterparts are objects of denial. In other words, these involve mechanisms that have become numb to citizens and allow consumers to forgo the object’s ties to this extreme scheme. These are devices that dominate everyday life while concealing the miserable realities that are ubiquitous with their presence. If we stopped using plastic tomorrow, there would still be too much plastic to fathom. We are too far gone. There is no fixing the plastic issue but only attempting to manage it. The intent of Epochalypse is to bring light to the manipulation that surrounds these characters and objects and the immense threat that plastic imposes. It is not proposing a solution to combat these players but instead a proposal of a reality for when this manipulation exceeds its limits. Epochalypse gives insight into what our future could hold due to our refusal to change our behavior. In this world, architecture is an instrument of the crisis and forces the architect to design in a different world than they are used to. 
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This is my stance on perpetual chaos, my coping in the eyes of a crisis. Epochalypse exposes how architecture can be disturbing and unsettling and I think that is okay. That’s the wake-up call I want to share.

By 2030, Indonesia and other southeast Asian countries were beyond capacity. Not a meter of the natural ground was in sight. All that was visible was plastic. Dirt was replaced by HDPE, grass by PETE. It suffocated the dying earth until there was nothing left to resuscitate. The material ascended up mountains and wrapped around river bends; it turned rolling hills into slick slopes. This was a turning point for America - where were they to export? China still had the import ban in place, besides with their overpopulation and crowded cities, it wasn’t long before their streets and walkways acquired this new veneer. We looked to Africa, but they also unexpectedly followed in China’s footsteps implementing their import ban in 2024. The only place left to look was the land between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the land of the free it was once called. Canada was not off the hook. While they do have superior healthcare and impeccable manners, they were also complicit in the plastic age. The formidable material does not know boundaries. North Dakota spilled into Manitoba while Saskatchewan did so into Montana. “What’s mine is yours” seemed to replace the old mantra. 

01/ The Collector
The collector shovels waste into his compartments, compresses them, and poops them out into a compartment ready for transport.


The Earth was drying up and the human race was vanishing. With all the natural resources depleted, what was left was only manmade.
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A system was put in place to help deal with this influx of rubbish. New technology was invented to collect, sort, breakdown and distribute the processed plastic.
The goal of the operation was to decompose the plastic waste through mycroremediation and applying the resulting mulch as a fertilizer in attempt to regrow what was lost. This new biofertilizer will act as a catalyst for growth.

Oil refineries were
dismanteled for parts
to construct the bots.

02/ The Plimp
The plimp is the messenger and the transporter, she grabs the package and carries it to the regenerator via the claw, while inside her belly mushrooms are being harvested.

03/ The Mycycler
The mycycler receives the packages and shreds the compressed plastic inside, the bits are fed into the silos where the mycelium is waiting to feast. When needed to restock, the mycycler also receives grown mushrooms which are processed to be clipped and extract the mycelium on the other side of the mycycler. The mycelium breaks down the shreds and creates a biofertilizer which is stored in the silos awaiting distribution

04/ The Army of Super Spreaders
The super spreaders are arial sowers, releasing the biofertilizer over stretches of scorched, barren land.

Every event is a
super spreader event!

all dune!

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