Fall 2019

Edited by Nicholas Pevzner & Stephanie Carlisle

Infrastructure is always political, and energy transitions have always been contested, pitting established players against upstart technologies and new coalitions. How can a radical reimagining of energy infrastructure create opportunities for an inclusive and participatory conversation about climate change and social justice? Who has the power to talk about infrastructure, and who gets left out?
Introduction: Power
Community Power As Provocation: Local Control For Resilience And Equity
Our Energy For Our Country
Speculative Designs For Energy Democracy
The TVA, Fuzzy Spaces Of Power, And Other Purposes
The Missouri River Basin: Water, Power, Decolonization, And Design
Power Plant Power
Arctic Present: The Case Of Teriberka
Coal Ash Wastescapes: The Byproduct Of Our Coal-Fired Power Dependency
Biomass For All: Designing An Inclusive Biomass Infrastructure
China’s Giant Transmission Grid Could Be The Key To Cutting Climate Emissions
2050 – An Energetic Odyssey: Persuasion By Collective Immersion
The Blue Lagoon: From Waste Commons To Landscape Commodity
Territory Of Extraction: The Crude North
Daylighting Conflict: Board Games As Decision-Making Tools

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    The Performative Ground: Rediscovering The Deep Section

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    The landscape we see happens above ground, yet much of its true intelligence lies beneath the surface.

    Yangtze River Delta Project

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    Coastal urban estuaries are dynamic sites. These sedimentary terrains must be reconsidered at the infrastructural scale to create a more resilient and adaptive landscape, a system that dynamically responds to the increasing risks of the coastal environment.

    The Humanity of Infrastructure: Landscape as Operative Ground

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    When landscape is modified and inhabited, it becomes the medium through which humanity can produce, move, and live. As landscape fulfills these roles, it becomes infrastructural.

    Extraction

    by Stephanie Carlisle and Nicholas Pevzner

    Extraction sustains our society. As the world becomes more urban and further removed from the landscapes that supply its raw materials and energy needs, more and more land is mined, blasted, dug, and drilled each year. How do these extraction landscapes fit into larger urban social, economic, and ecological frameworks? How can we bridge the disconnect between the city and its extractive hinterland?

    Introduction: Extraction

    by Stephanie Carlisle and Nicholas Pevzner

    Extraction sustains our society. The economic value of raw materials regularly outweighs concerns about the practices and processes required to bring them to market. But have we really grappled with the complex systems that landscapes of extraction expose?

    Exhibit: Lebbeus Woods at The Drawing Center

    by Stephanie Carlisle and Nicholas Pevzner

    LEBBEUS WOODS, ARCHITECT, on exhibit at The Drawing Center in New York, traces the career of Lebbeus Woods, a visionary architect whose responses to the sites of trauma have given us haunting designs — intricate, beautiful, full of memory, and ultimately optimistic.

    Introduction: Migration

    by Stephanie Carlisle and Nicholas Pevzner

    Migration is an instinct shared across many species, an essential ingredient for survival. The design of our cities and landscapes can facilitate or inhibit migrations. Is promoting connectivity always the answer? Which flows do we want to facilitate, and which to block?