To unmake and re-earth: searching for the edges of carbon modernity

The Anthropocene brings into question all aspects of contemporary urban life, yet one axiom of urban form, as we know it today, deserves particular scrutiny — the opposition between centre and periphery — given that spaces considered ‘peripheral’ within the global economy are nonetheless integrated into the totalising productive logic of industrialism and capitalism. This text locates a possible site of intervention in the re-imagining of production and daily life, presenting work from a seminar the author taught at The Cooper Union in 2023. The course aims to develop a spatial lexicon that operates against the logic of carbon modernity by exploring ecological edges within the city and situating architectural fragments at those margins that offer new affordances for productive activity. Ultimately, the work aims to interrogate the role of architectural form in sociopolitical transformation by rewriting the relationship between people and land, even in a highly urbanised environment.