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.

    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.

    How Many Trees are Enough? Tree Death and the Urban Canopy

    by Lara A. Roman

    Realizing the ecosystem services benefits of tree programs depends on tree survival. Despite the focus on planting over the past few decades, overall canopy cover levels in major US cities have been declining.

    Brooklyn Bridge Park

    by Sarah Kathleen Peck

    Currently under construction, Brooklyn Bridge Park will eventually encompass approximately eighty-five acres and 1.3 miles of the previously industrial waterfront directly across from downtown Manhattan.

    On Landscape, Ecology, and Other Modifiers to Urbanism

    by Charles Waldheim

    Ecological urbanism reveals the need for re-qualifying urban design while acknowledging that the discourse around landscape urbanism is entering a mature phase of its development.

    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.

    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.

    Extraction

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    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?

    Skeleton Forms: The Architecture of Infrastructure

    by Laila Seewang

    What determines the boundary of an infrastructural project? How does it overlap with other discrete projects and what part of the larger ‘network’ is adopted into the urban fragment?

    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.