NEW GEOGRAPHIES #1

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

NEYRAN TURAN

STEPHEN RAMOS

EDITORIAL BOARD

GARETH DOHERTY

RANIA GHOSN

EL HADI JAZAIRY

ANTONIO PETROV

ADVISORY BOARD

BRUNO LATOUR

MOHSEN MOSTAFAVI

ANTOINE PICON

HASHIM SARKIS

CHARLES WALDHEIM

EDITORIAL ADVISOR

MELISSA VAUGHN

GRAPHIC DESIGN

THUMB

Copyright 2009

President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Printed in Hong Kong by Regal Printing.

ISBN: 978-1-934510-20-9

CONTENTS

STEPHEN RAMOS & NEYRAN TURAN AFTER ZERO 08

ALBERT POPE EX NIHILO URBANISM 10

ULRICH BECK RISK SOCIETY’S “COSMOPOLITAN MOMENT” 24

PIER VITTORIO AURELI AND MARTINO TATTARA ARCHITECTURE AS FRAMEWORK: THE PROJECT OF THE CITY AND THE CRISIS OF NEOLIBERALISM 36

ERIK SWYNGEDOUW THE ZERO-GROUND OF POLITICS: MUSINGS ON THE POST-POLITICAL CITY 52

KELLER EASTERLING CABLE 62

THOMAS J. CAMPANELLA MIMETIC UTOPIAS: THEMEING AND CONSUMERISM ON CHINA’S SUBURBAN FRONTIER 78

FRANCOIS BLANCIAK SITELESS GEOGRAPHY 90

YASSER ELSHESHTAWY ARABIAN TABULA RASA: ABU DHABI’S URBAN IMAGINARY 98

MATTHEW GANDY STARTING POINTS: GILLES CLÉMENT AND THE RECUPERATION OF SPACE 110

BEHRANG BEHIN RECOVERING “THE FUTURE”: A NEW CITY IN THE GULF 120

LOLA SHEPPARD AND MASON WHITE MELTDOWN: THAWING GEOGRAPHIES IN THE ARCTIC 130

JOSEPH GRIMA HOMOGENEITY: FROM SCRATCH, RETROFITTED 138

PETER HALL GEOGRAPHY AND PLANNING: A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD STORY? 146

AFTER ZERO

Design disciplines are challenged by the condition of the zero point. "Zero-context," "cities from scratch," and "zero-carbon" developments all force designers to address important questions regarding the strategic relevance and impact of a design intervention. As much as the zero point presents naïve innocence and embodies contradictory notions—such as crisis versus abundance or context versus model—it also creates a ground for doubt, self-critique, and rejuvenation for architecture and urbanism. As projects, indeed entire “new” cities, are built before they can even be imagined and then repackaged and replicated as models for any context, what do these projects suggest for the design disciplines? Rather than reductive aestheticization, or total rejection, what are possible critical ways to reflect on this condition? Beyond a focus on the vast scales and ambitions of these projects, it is important to see them as symptomatic of a much broader condition within contemporary architecture and urbanism. Along with the challenges inherent in the zero point, perhaps more meaningful are the provocations of the AFTER the ZERO condition. The idea of an AFTER ZERO is crucial for us; not only to assert the need to reflect on the future following the zero condition but also in acknowledgment of the release of this volume after our previous volume zero. If the zero condition presents crises of form, context, and social relevance for architecture and urbanism, perhaps one way to deal with this is “to redefine crisis, not as crisis but more simply as symptoms of larger urban trends whose logic is revealed only when judgment is suspended,” as Albert Pope writes in the volume. If we assess the current moment of crisis as a zero point, how can we think about the social, political, and formal significance of design after the Meltdown? After an era of reality mapping or iconic formalism, this volume aims to investigate possibilities AFTER crises, AFTER mapping, and AFTER signature architectures. Without relying on totalizing narratives, naïve morality, or escapism, AFTER ZERO is an opportunity to imagine alternative futures and a revitalized project for the city.