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

Popular

    Reconsidering the Underworld of Urban Soils

    by Laura Solano

    If we truly understood the delicacy of soil as a dynamic living system integral to the health of our towns and cities, we would be more cautious about how it is perceived, treated, and protected.

    Daylighting Conflict: Board Games as Decision-Making Tools

    by Janette Kim

    Games can unearth new sites of power and a recharged vision of inclusivity in the face of crisis. This essay presents a series of original board games designed to expose the political contestations embroiled in climate risk.

    The Performative Ground: Rediscovering The Deep Section

    by Stephanie Carlisle and Nicholas Pevzner

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

    Made in Australia: The Future of Australian Cities

    by Richard Weller & Julian Bolleter

    The Australian population is increasing at a rate of one person every 84 seconds. Taking population growth seriously means planning for an extra 40 million Australians by century’s end.

    Yangtze River Delta Project

    by Catherine Seavitt

    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 Blue Lagoon: From Waste Commons to Landscape Commodity

    by Catherine De Almeida

    Waste legibility can be an asset shared by active power generating operations, a novel ecological community, and recreational uses. At the Blue Lagoon, the formalization of a wasteland commons created instead a high-end, privatized spa that conceals the underlying landscape and its unique conditions.

    Newest issue explores migration and across scales and geographies

    by Stephanie Carlisle

    This issue, long in the making, tackles this pressing and loaded topic through a range of disciplinary perspectives, reflecting on a diverse suite of fascinating stories of migration: of people, of animals, of plants, of materials, of habitats and climate zones, of coastlines and entire urban regions.

    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?

    The Continental Compact: Eastward Migration in a (New) New World

    by Ian Caine & Derek Hoeferlin

    A manifesto for a radical retreat from the American mythology of westward expansion, proposing instead an eastward migration where we stop moving water to people, but instead start moving people to water.

    Flood + Forest: A Migration Corridor for Reconnecting the Brussels Landscape

    by Wim Wambecq & Bruno De Meulder

    Brussels' southern Senne valley is selected to establish an ecological corridor for migration and for holding water before it enters the city.