Extended Urbanization Research Seminar Spring 2021
Urban research is confronted today urbanization processes that unfold far beyond the realm of agglomerations and urban regions. This research seminar presents some of the most recent and cutting-edge research investigations into extended urbanization and discusses some of the most exciting articles in this fascinating new field of urban research.
What is the future of peripheral landscapes and severly depopulating mountainous regions? Which processes of urbanisation occur beyond the traditional city-boundaries, in seemingly intact areas of nature and uninhabited or depopulating land?
This talk revisits the mythical landscapes of Arcadia in Greece, framing a contemporary, severely depopulating mountainous region at the core of Peloponnese. It argues for a critical understanding of the formation of peripheral landscapes in relation to broader political, economic and geographic contexts. It outlines “peripheralization” as a process of urban transformation and as an ongoing territorial project in multiple scales.
The talk contains work in progress from my ongoing PhD dissertation “Arcadia. Politics of Land and Nature unfolding in Greek Peripheral Landscapes”. The investigation is motivated by the radical, yet invisible transformations that have occurred at Greek peripheral landscapes, especially at the aftermath of the “Greek economic crisis.”
Housing estate and oil palm plantation in Johor State, Malaysia. 2018 (H.Hortig)
The production of palm oil has radically altered the environmental and socio-spatial configurations of Peninsular Malaysia through the transformation of tropical forests and agrarian land into territories of agro-industrial production. The emerging palm oil territories are spatial, ecological and economic monocultures subjected to global consumption habits and governed by the logic of supply chain operations.
In this talk, I analyse the histories and present forms of palm oil production in Johor State, Malaysia and asks how territories of palm oil production emerge, how they transform in the future, and how architects, urban designers and landscape architects can address the challenges arising from agro-industrial production.
The broader frame of the research is to provide a qualitative analysis of the socio-spatial transformation of palm oil territories to uncover potentials for critical design thinking and to integrate agro-industrial territories into the field of architecture and urban and landscape design.