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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    Introduction: Power

    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?

    The Missouri River Basin: Water, Power, Decolonization, and Design

    by Kees Lokman

    Decolonization is a complex and multifaceted process that involves examining and denouncing colonialism; recovering and adopting Indigenous knowledge, language and practices, and; undertaking scholarly projects that address the needs of Indigenous communities.

    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?

    Landscape Urbanism: Definitions & Trajectory

    by Christopher Gray

    Long described as an “emerging” practice, landscape urbanism—with all of its ambiguity and complexity—has in fact already emerged and represents a significant 21st century design and planning ethos.

    50,000 Trees

    by Sarah Moos

    50,000 Trees explores how a ubiquitous and overlooked urban space — the freeway overpass — can become a site to strategically offset a significant part of the city’s carbon emissions at the source, with a man-made productive forest grown for carbon sequestration.

    The Hole World: Scales and Spaces of Extraction

    by Gavin Bridge

    Landscapes of energy extraction are portals, wormholes between two worlds in which time and space work differently.

    The High Line: Section 1

    by Sarah Kathleen Peck

    The High Line is a 1.2-mile long abandoned elevated freight rail line along the west side of lower Manhattan.  This 5.9 acre stretch of open space spans 20 city blocks in between and through buildings in New York City.

    The Humanity of Infrastructure: Landscape as Operative Ground

    by Dane Carlson

    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.

    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.

    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.