Añoranzas por un Presente aún más Verde

ResumenEste ensayo analiza el auge de la "ecociudad" dentro de un amplio contexto político e histórico. Exponiendo así no solo lo que la "ecociudad" representa por sí misma, sino también una tendencia, dentro de la historia del urbanismo y de la arquitectura moderna, que la liga estrechamente a la dialéctica de crisis y reforma. De esta misma manera, se examina la relación entre la retórica de la sostenibilidad y la representación del proyecto, la cual hoy en día parece dominar el diseño mismo de la "ecociudad" una invención cuya consistencia física siempre parece eclipsada por sus promesas éticas universales. La consecuencia de ese tipo de pensamiento, el cual es criticado típicamente por no cumplir completamente con sus promesas, señala un problema aun más profundo. Un problema que ha acompañado al proyecto urbano tal vez desde el siglo diecinueve, y solo ahora, ante la persuasión ideológica de la globalización y el libre mercado del capitalismo, adquiere claridad. El argumento que se expone aquí es precisamente que al responder a la crisis ecológica a través de nuevos modos de urbanización, se desplaza a la verdadera crisis (ecológica) al ser sustituida por una sugerencia distinta y más sutil: la "verdadera" crisis que confrontamos es el colapso del capitalismo liberal.AbstractThis essay attempts to frame the rise of the "eco-city" within a larger political and historical context in order to expose not only what the "eco-city" itself represents, but also to uncover a certain tendency within the history of modern architecture and urban design, tied to the dialectic of crisis and reform. In so doing, it examines the relationship between rhetoric and representation that now seems to dominate the actual design of an "eco-city" itself gure whose physical consistency always seems overshadowed by its universal promises of ethical goodness. The consequences of such thinking, which are typically criticized for not delivering completely on its promises, point to a much deeper problem at handone which has accompanied the urban project since perhaps the nineteenth century, and is only now, within the ideological white-wash of globalized, free-market capitalism, becoming clear. I will argue that precisely by addressing the crises of ecological catastrophe through a new mode of urbanization, the true (ecological) crisis is displaced and is substituted by a far different, more subtle suggestion: that the "real" crisis we face is the collapse of liberal capitalism itself

To fill the earth: circulation and urbanization

Today, the urban as a category of space remains a vague notion–a background condition made visible empirically through its effects and treated as the outcome of a certain naturalised, transhistorical capacity of human co-habitation. As a result, despite the common fact of urbanization as a planetary phenomenon, we remain unable to qualify the urban itself as a distinct spatio-political order of the contemporary world. This thesis attempts to write a political history of the urban. It will do so by interrogating the concept of circulation, since circulation is not only central to the knowledge and practices of urbanization, but it also constitutes a certain historical nexus between political form and spatial order. The thesis can be framed by three fundamental questions: How is it that circulation became epistemologically bound up with the city? What is the relationship between circulation and urbanization? And, more broadly, what is the relationship between circulation and power? The thesis departs by taking issue with the birth of ‘urbanization’ in the nineteenth century, for it is in this period that, not only would circulation become a fundamental condition of the city, but it would do so with a distinctly political ambition—one that is curiously overlooked by our present histories of the city. I place particular emphasis on the work of Ildefonso Cerdá, the figure who authored the first explicit theory of urbanization in 1867. From here, the thesis embarks on a more historical examination of circulation, charting the ways in which, as a concept, it was made useful for giving order to the physical world, tracing its migration from a signature of divine and natural order to its emergence as a concept in the seventeenth century offering a spatial principle by which a new sphere of earthly, oeconomic and political power could emerge. It examines how circulation helped produce forms of political and spatial thought while embedding itself in the spaces of the modern European state and in the networks of colonial trade. From signature to concept, circulation by the eighteenth century became the foundation for an idealism around which a counter-state discourse could appear through the emergence of ‘society’—a subjectivity for which Cerdá’s theory of urbanization would later be established. Through this genealogy, the thesis engages the question of urbanization as a spatio-political order in its own rite. By reading this alongside various political and legal analyses, I argue that the urban, in opposition to ‘the city’, is a crucial dispositif in the construction of modern biopolitics in which the very organisation of space and its mediation of population constitutes a political form. In addition, the urban bears a rather striking epistemology which, I argue, was discovered not in the spaces and architectural forms of the city, but rather in the knowledge and practices fundamental to establishing the territory. The urban, I argue, is a hybrid spatiality—both city and territory while being neither at the same time— something in excess of both ontologies. At once biopolitical and territorial, the urban, I urge, should be seen as the process and product of a radical reorganisation of political power in space. In total, this thesis will follow the ways in which the construction of modes of circulation both gave form to preexisting political ideals and were also useful as a model for giving birth to new ones. In this way, the thesis also seeks to challenge a certain presumed linear causality between the cognitive sphere and spatiomaterial world that continues to underpin many discourses today. Thus, a subtext of the thesis may be read which claims that a dialectic relation between intellectual projection and interpretation is deeply rooted in the formation of the modern world itself

To fill the earth: circulation and urbanization

Today, the urban as a category of space remains a vague notion–a background condition made visible empirically through its effects and treated as the outcome of a certain naturalised, transhistorical capacity of human co-habitation. As a result, despite the common fact of urbanization as a planetary phenomenon, we remain unable to qualify the urban itself as a distinct spatio-political order of the contemporary world. This thesis attempts to write a political history of the urban. It will do so by interrogating the concept of circulation, since circulation is not only central to the knowledge and practices of urbanization, but it also constitutes a certain historical nexus between political form and spatial order. The thesis can be framed by three fundamental questions: How is it that circulation became epistemologically bound up with the city? What is the relationship between circulation and urbanization? And, more broadly, what is the relationship between circulation and power? The thesis departs by taking issue with the birth of ‘urbanization’ in the nineteenth century, for it is in this period that, not only would circulation become a fundamental condition of the city, but it would do so with a distinctly political ambition—one that is curiously overlooked by our present histories of the city. I place particular emphasis on the work of Ildefonso Cerdá, the figure who authored the first explicit theory of urbanization in 1867. From here, the thesis embarks on a more historical examination of circulation, charting the ways in which, as a concept, it was made useful for giving order to the physical world, tracing its migration from a signature of divine and natural order to its emergence as a concept in the seventeenth century offering a spatial principle by which a new sphere of earthly, oeconomic and political power could emerge. It examines how circulation helped produce forms of political and spatial thought while embedding itself in the spaces of the modern European state and in the networks of colonial trade. From signature to concept, circulation by the eighteenth century became the foundation for an idealism around which a counter-state discourse could appear through the emergence of ‘society’—a subjectivity for which Cerdá’s theory of urbanization would later be established. Through this genealogy, the thesis engages the question of urbanization as a spatio-political order in its own rite. By reading this alongside various political and legal analyses, I argue that the urban, in opposition to ‘the city’, is a crucial dispositif in the construction of modern biopolitics in which the very organisation of space and its mediation of population constitutes a political form. In addition, the urban bears a rather striking epistemology which, I argue, was discovered not in the spaces and architectural forms of the city, but rather in the knowledge and practices fundamental to establishing the territory. The urban, I argue, is a hybrid spatiality—both city and territory while being neither at the same time— something in excess of both ontologies. At once biopolitical and territorial, the urban, I urge, should be seen as the process and product of a radical reorganisation of political power in space. In total, this thesis will follow the ways in which the construction of modes of circulation both gave form to preexisting political ideals and were also useful as a model for giving birth to new ones. In this way, the thesis also seeks to challenge a certain presumed linear causality between the cognitive sphere and spatiomaterial world that continues to underpin many discourses today. Thus, a subtext of the thesis may be read which claims that a dialectic relation between intellectual projection and interpretation is deeply rooted in the formation of the modern world itself

Hyper-gentrification and the urbanisation of suburbia

Suburban belts and outer-city areas in global cities such as Vancouver, London and New York are undergoing little noticed structural, social and formal changes. The diverse and often contradictory uses of ‘hyper’ and ‘super’ gentrification share an understanding that the process in question is one in which already gentrified inner-city neighbourhoods are undergoing a new phase of gentrification. Hyper-gentrification is more than simply a new phase in the process, as it undermines the tenets of some of the leading gentrification theories. Hyper-gentrification undermines the theories, as a local rent gap becomes a minor concern in these global processes and Ley’s white-collar employees and their cultural preferences become irrelevant. A key outcome of the hyper-gentrification of inner-cities has been the exodus of outpriced middle-class residents. Some cities, such as London, have specifically identified the suburban belt as a focus of future housing and densification

Architecture and the Environment:Field Notes

These Field Notes, on the topic of Architecture and the Environment, elucidate how problems raised in the environmental humanities have informed architectural history, and in turn, what architectural history has to contribute to this emerging field. The short essays explore specific \u27positions\u27 in the overarching debate, identifying a radical return to critical theory and the embrace of the fundamentally transdisciplinary nature of environmental humanities and architectural history. While the positions advocate for a serious investigation of architects\u27 texts and ideas on environmental issues, the collection also champions a broader engagement with Anthropocene questions and proposes to adopt the environment as an intellectual perspective from which to look upon the world