Territorial Tendencies

Branner and Beckerman Travel Fellowship

UC Berkeley, Summer 2023 (postponed from Summer 2020)

Exhibit upcoming in February 2024

In the wake of a new epoch, globalization has altered the relationship between hinterland and city. Urban areas now depend more heavily on other cities for resources than on their respective hinterlands. This research aims to understand the ways in which Territory influences Architecture’s response to Geography.

In order to analyze relationships between layers of Territories, from hinterland to city, I will travel along five rivers from source to mouth. The rivers Rimac and Maipo stem from the Andes; the Po, Rhone and Rhine from the Alps. These two mountain ranges provide water to regions that would otherwise be unfit for agriculture. As opposed to an archipelagic approach of flying from city to city, I will use the movement through spaces as an investigation. Along each river, I will observe and document the ways in which Architecture interacts with Geography. Through this approach, I will challenge the long-uncontested dichotomy between the urban and the rural. The boundary between the two is blurred, with hinterlands no longer serving merely as service landscapes to their respective cities. Following the course of each river, I will ask questions of the Architecture: Where does the urban end and the hinterland begin? Is any place untouched? How do humans collide or harmonize with nature?

The ways in which Architecture amplifies or dismisses Geography define the traces we leave on the Earth. It is the goal of this research to put forth a different perspective of the Anthropocene: one of opportunity. I will observe and document versions of synergy between the city and the hinterland in order to propose new relationships within the new epoch.