Troubled! Architecture of Ruinous Landscapes

The landscapes we inhabit are ruinous. Dominant forms of spatial planning that have significantly contributed to the destruction of our environments are in crisis. In order to develop different forms of spatial planning, it is necessary to trace architecture’s involvement in creating and upholding the dominance of these destructive relationships.
Building on a critical analysis of ecological simplification as a driving force of capitalist spatial planning deeply rooted in architecture, this book aims to grasp space in its relational complexity to join a more-than-human search for more inclusive and sustainable spatial practices.
By examining the ruinous character of four different landscapes in Berlin – a forest, a river, wetlands, and fallow land – the authors both question prevailing forms of spatial planning and explore other ways of reading, representing, and constructing space that can help us sustain our shared environments as socio- and biodiverse spaces. Rather than jumping to supposedly definite solutions this book tries to embrace conflict, fluidity, and ambivalence as a ground for cultivating different modes of relating, planning, and taking care.