Terra Infecta is an ongoing research project on architecture and disease. It looks at the origins of infections in relation to environmental degradation, and at the politics of large-scale epidemiological intervention.
The project is structured in two parts. On the one hand, it chronicles the eradication of malaria in Italy (1870–1950) – the making of a new national landscape, the nexus between hygiene and Fascist planning, and the role of disease in shaping the idea of "South." In parallel, it studies global anthropogenic transformations (such as urban expansion and deforestation) in terms of their consequences at the microscopic scale.
Ultimately,
Terra Infecta seeks to bring together expertise from spatial disciplines, the humanities, and the medical sciences in order to explore whether architecture can contribute to a better understanding of global health.
(Photography by
Anna Positano)
Texts
* Arrivederci ad Arborea,
Migrant no. 5, 2018
*
Microscopic Colonialism, e-flux architecture, 2017
*
Mapping Malaria in Italy, Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2017
Public events
*
The Afterlife of Fascist Architecture, organized by Decolonizing Architecture/KKH for Manifesta 12. Palermo, 18–19 June 2018.
*
Circulations, a workshop with Nida Rehman, Shehab Ismail, Azadeh Mashayekhi, Ross Exo Adams, Claudia Aradau, Martina Tazzioli, Dele Adeyemo, Francesco Sebregondi; with a keynote lecture by Christina Sharpe. Goldsmiths, 17–18 May 2018.
*
On Microbes, Cities and Landscapes, with Giovanna Borasi and Nabil Ahmed. HNI, Rotterdam, March 2017.
*
Mediterranean Thought, a symposium with Franco Cassano, Adrian Lahoud, and Lorenzo Pezzani. UCL, May 2014.
Network
The project was first developed within the
Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths. It has subsequently been supported by
Het Nieuwe Instituut and the
Graham Foundation.
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