Reimaging Earth. Architecture and the critical and speculative uses of geovisualization

Abstract

This article addresses the debates surrounding the design uses of satellite-based geovisualizations. It asks, in particular, how geovisualizations can support new design politics towards global urbanization. The initial section of the article presents a series of theoretical critiques of geovisualization. These stress that satellite-based imagery represents a disembodied, detached form of vision that hides under a totalizing image the actual, variegated conditions and struggles happening on the ground. As a result, geovisualization is considered as an instrument that neutralizes the critical dimension of design. The article counters this critique through an analysis of two cartographic and design practices which heavily rely on satellite data. The first one is the work of Neil Brenner’s Urban Theory Lab (UTL), which uses cartography as an analytical and critical tool aimed at unpacking the sociospatial dimensions of planetary urbanization. The second case is Joyce Hsiang and Bimal Mendis’ speculative, cartographic project City of Seven Billion. My argument is that this project partially builds upon the UTL’s work, but it substitutes the latter’s analytical orientation for a projective one to investigate how architectural design can operate in the context of planetary urbanization. By analysing these two works, the article concludes that both support a design politics oriented to recognizing and then defining the questions and scales upon which architecture can intervene today.