NEW GEOGRAPHIES #2

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

RANIA GHOSN

EDITORIAL BOARD

GARETH DOHERTY

EL HADI JAZAIRY

ANTONIO PETROV

STEPHEN RAMOS

NEYRAN TURAN

ADVISORY BOARD

BRUNO LATOUR

MOHSEN MOSTAFAVI

ANTOINE PICON

HASHIM SARKIS

CHARLES WALDHEIM

EDITORIAL ADVISOR

MELISSA VAUGHN

GRAPHIC DESIGN

THOMAS CELIZNA

DANIEL HARDING

Copyright 2009

President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Printed in Hong Kong by Regal Printing.

ISBN: 978-1-934510-25-4

CONTENTS

RANIA GHOSN ENERGY AS A SPATIAL PROJECT

IVAN ILLICH THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF ENERGY

JOHN MAY THE BECOMING-ENERGETIC OF LANDSCAPE

CAROLA HEIN GLOBAL LANDSCAPES OF OIL

GAVIN BRIDGE THE HOLE WORLD: SCALES AND SPACES OF EXTRACTION

ABDELLATIF BENACHENHOU THE SAHARA OF OIL, GAS, AND SUN: AN INTERVIEW BY EL HADI JAZAIRY

SANTIAGO DEL HIERRO AND GARY LEGGETT PLANE VIOLENCE: A SECTIONAL LANDSCAPE OF OIL IN AMAZONIA

ANDREW BARRY VISIBLE INVISIBILITY

CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE

GEOFFREY THUN AND KATHY VELIKOV CONDUIT URBANISM: REGIONAL ECOLOGIES OF ENERGY AND MOBILITY

MARTIN MELOSI HOUSTON: ENERGY CAPITALS

MARIA KAIKA HYDROPOWER: FROM TECHNO-NATURE TO RETRO-NATURE

GEOFF MANAUGH PLUG-IN ECOZONES

PIERRE BELANGER POWER PERESTROIKA: ECONOMY AND ECOLOGY OF ENERGY OVER TIME

KAZYS VARNELIS AND ROBERT SUMRELL PERSONAL LUBRICANTS: SHELL OIL AND SCENARIO PLANNING

JEAN ROBERT ALTERNATIVES AND THE TECHNOGENIC PRODUCTION OF SCARCITY

MIRKO ZARDINI (AGAINST) THE GREENWASHING OF ARCHITECTURE

LANDSCAPES OF ENERGY

Energy needs space. It exploits space as a resource, a site of production, a transportation channel, an environment for consumption, and a place for capital accumulation. Whether oil pipelines, dams, solar panels, nuclear plants, or wind parks, all industrial energy systems deploy space, capital, and technology to construct their geographies of power and inscribe their technological order as a mode of organization of social, economic, and political relations. Popular taxonomies of energy have tended, however, to blur distinctions between different modes and instead emphasize a renewable/nonrenewable binary that dismisses continuities between the conventional and its alternatives in an anticipation of a future beyond oil. In the name of conservation, we build efficient building skins, low-carbon systems, islands of self-sufficiency, and positive-energy machines. The triad of energy, economy, and environment is at the forefront of design concerns. Amid the rush to abandon oil and endorse alternatives, we propose to reflect on the spatial conditions of oil and seek disciplinary linkages to position design’s agency amid contemporary concerns for energy infrastructure, ecology, and globalization. Volume 2 of New Geographies addresses the relations of space and energy across scales, technologies, and actors. The issue’s premise is to historicize the dialectical relation between energy and society and identify its material, political, and representational geographies. The deployment of energy’s production and consumption geographies makes the most important question “What are the social, political, and spatial implications of the next mode of energy, and how can design practices partake in shaping a more just urbanization?” Making visible the infrastructure, Landscapes of Energy is an invitation to articulate a geographic future of energy through the designer’s tools and strategies.