Urban crystallization and the morphogenesis of urban territories

New article written together with Andrea Mubi Brighenti is out now on Territory, Politics and Governence

ABSTRACT

In this article, we develop the perspective of crystallization as a way to shed a light on the morphogenesis and stabilization of urban territories. We start by describing crystallization as a consolidation of a visible and singular order that establishes certain privileged directions of growth and breaks spatial and temporal symmetries. We then illuminate how crystallization processes unfold at different scales, going through a series of historical cases, from the stabilization of urban regions, to iconic places such as Times Square, New York, and on to large scale linear or path crystals, such the Turia Riverbed Park in Valencia. Building on these cases, we then discuss crystallization as a phenomenon requiring metastability, and how this metastability relates to different ways and forms of territorial stabilization. Finally, we discuss how crystallization, by making certain figures and directions more salient than others, also plays an important part in the emergence of new scales and in the processes of urban rescaling, that is, how crystallization also contributes to a hierarchical segmentation of the urban environment.

From Bruno Taut, Die Stadtkrone (1919)

Morphogenesis and animistic moments: On social formation and territorial production

Article written with Andrea Mubi Brighenti, now published in Social Science Information.

Abstract: This article explores the issue of morphogenesis and metamorphosis in socio-spatial formations. The specific key is what we propose to call the ‘animistic moment’ in form-taking processes. We believe that a conceptualisation of animistic moments might help us to focus better not simply on the coming about of new forms, but also on the power forms are endowed with. The general social-theoretical horizon for the essay is an approach to social collectives as forms of territorialisation and territorial stabilisation. We suggest that an inquiry into the genesis and the transformation of forms through animistic moments might also be employed in the study of an array of processes of social territorialisation. In this article, we look in particular at two examples of the materialisation and animation of social-territorial boundaries: the first relates to the architectural construction of brick arches and walls, while the second relates to urban warfare and the demolition of urban walls.