Terra Infecta is a long-term research project on the architecture and ecology of infectious disease. It starts from the history of malaria in the South of Italy, arguing that the need for disease control was used to justify the imposition of capitalist modernity on the landscape. The research then looks at recent epidemics around the world (such as HIV and Lyme) as a legacy of colonial geographies and of current ecological change.
The Normalization of Bodies
“Beginning with the English enclosures in the seventeenth century, the bond between private landownership and state power took root all over Europe. But wetlands, where the boundary between land and water is fluid and ever changing, did not allow for clear representation on a map or on land registers.”
“Beginning with the English enclosures in the seventeenth century, the bond between private landownership and state power took root all over Europe. But wetlands, where the boundary between land and water is fluid and ever changing, did not allow for clear representation on a map or on land registers.”
essay
published in the book Archivi della Basilicata 1: La Bonifica di Bradano e Metaponto
Humboldt Books
2019
read
published in the book Archivi della Basilicata 1: La Bonifica di Bradano e Metaponto
Humboldt Books
2019
read
“In spite of its isolation, Arborea is in many ways a built manifestation of what ‘nature’ came to mean in the 20th century. In the span of fifty years, a new set of relations between humans, plants and animals was not only experimented here but made into everyday reality.”
With photography by Anna Positano
With photography by Anna Positano
Microscopic Colonialism
“The environmental history of HIV illustrates how power structures play a key role in shaping “natural” entities and processes. The early stages of HIV bear a degree of similarity to the current situation, as most epidemics that have appeared in the last two decades originate at the shifting frontier between urban and rural.”
“The environmental history of HIV illustrates how power structures play a key role in shaping “natural” entities and processes. The early stages of HIV bear a degree of similarity to the current situation, as most epidemics that have appeared in the last two decades originate at the shifting frontier between urban and rural.”
Mapping Malaria in Italy
essay
published in the online journal of the Canadian Centre for Architecture
2017
read
essay
published in the online journal of the Canadian Centre for Architecture
2017
read
“In its century-long quest to eliminate malaria, Italy remodeled its landscape as a technical and economic project, giving rise to a new anthropogenic nature. Public health served to establish a new territorial order of free circulation that operated beyond the scale of the city.”
selected talks
※ Lecture at Princeton University, PhD seminar run by Beatriz Colomina and Ivan L. Munuera, School of Architecture, Oct. 2019
※ Conversation with Jumana Manna, part of the series “The Mediterranean as a Mindset”, organised by Delfina Foundation, Sept. 2019
※ “Contagion!!!” - Lecture with Ivan L. Munuera, Architectural Association, July 2019
watch
※ “Circulations” - Conference organized with Dele Adeyemo and Francesco Sebregondi. With Christina Sharpe, Ross Exo Adams, Claudia Aradau, Shehab Ismail, Azadeh Mashakyekhi, Nida Rehman, Anita Rupprecht. Goldsmiths, May 2018.
※ Lecture at Manifesta 12, part of the seminar “The Heritage of Fascist Architecture”, organized by Decolonizing Architecture/KKH Stockholm, June 2018
※ “On Microbes, Cities and Landscape” - Conversation with Giovanna Borasi and Nabil Ahmed, Het Nieuwe Instituut, March 2017
listen
※ Conversation with Jumana Manna, part of the series “The Mediterranean as a Mindset”, organised by Delfina Foundation, Sept. 2019
※ “Contagion!!!” - Lecture with Ivan L. Munuera, Architectural Association, July 2019
watch
※ “Circulations” - Conference organized with Dele Adeyemo and Francesco Sebregondi. With Christina Sharpe, Ross Exo Adams, Claudia Aradau, Shehab Ismail, Azadeh Mashakyekhi, Nida Rehman, Anita Rupprecht. Goldsmiths, May 2018.
※ Lecture at Manifesta 12, part of the seminar “The Heritage of Fascist Architecture”, organized by Decolonizing Architecture/KKH Stockholm, June 2018
※ “On Microbes, Cities and Landscape” - Conversation with Giovanna Borasi and Nabil Ahmed, Het Nieuwe Instituut, March 2017
listen
funding