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N° 24 | Infrastructure in Times of Crisis. Imagining and Designing Worlds That Reflect Climate Change

Thematic dossier coordinated by Mathieu Mercuriali and Corinne Tiry-Ono
Deadline for sending papers: 25 Februar 2025

Call for papers

  • 1  Stephen Graham & Simon Marvin, « Splintering Urbanism at 20 and the ‘Infrastructural Turn’ », Jour (...)
  • 2   « New infrastructures are promises made in the present about our future », ibid., 2018, p. 27.

The dawn of the 21st century has been described as an “infrastructural turn”1 by many humanities and social science researchers. The spectrum of disciplines interested in “infrastructure” as a field of study has significantly increased, going beyond technological or functional dimensions to question the political, societal and cultural impacts. This break with the Prometheus myth and promises of infrastructural modernity reveal wide-ranging adversities and inadequacies whether endured or challenged.2

Over the last two decades, repeated crises of various kinds (ecological, economic, energy, etc.) have continuously underlined infrastructural vulnerability, along with its strategic role (robustness) in responding to these situations through the short, medium and long term. Infrastructure has also been associated with new values, virtues and capacities, intended to contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and responsible future. Do these new “promises” create yet another type of “infrastructural turn”?

With this in mind, the present issue takes a closer look at the changing design practices of spatial discipline actors, given the infrastructural challenges sparked by crises.

Beyond movement control infrastructure

  • 3  Ohno Hidetoshi (dir.), Towards the Fiber City. An investigation of Sustainable City Form, Tokyo, M (...)
  • 4  Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Les limites à la croissance (dans un monde fini), (...)
  • 5  Ulrich Beck, La Société du risque. Sur la voie d’une autre modernité, Paris, Flammarion, 2008 (ori (...)

Imagining cities and territories with regard to movement (of people, goods, energy, or information), along with the changing character and speed thereof, has permeated and often dominated the history of architectural and urban production in the modern industrialized world.3 Physical infrastructure has fed this imagined narrative, both in terms of time and scale, by distinguishing itself as being designed and built to interconnect populated areas spatially and over time—i.e., highways, railroads, etc.—or to adapt natural environments to human activities—i.e., dykes, bridges, dams, etc. Further, their conceptualization is a long-term process, involving irregular phases that are inevitably flexible to various territorial developments and periods.4 As such, they must contend with contexts in which there exist factors that transcend the technical entity or system itself, constantly shifting and of a cyclical, structural, hypothetical or unknown nature. Moreover, the ever-present vision of exponential growth has rendered them devices for territorial and environmental control, giving rise to extensive systems and artifacts designed to exploit, integrate or channel these movements. Such infrastructure defines scales of intervention that challenge modern forms, whether superstructures or megastructures, in their capacity to serve societal purposes. Other infrastructure was described as a “megamachine,”5 according to Lewis Mumford, considered as social and political systems in social science disciplines, comparable to the technological systems in the fields of architecture and urban design. How can various disciplines reappropriate material and societal infrastructure as a field of investigation?

Crises as a Way of Rethinking the Role of Infrastructure

  • 6  Hartmut Rosa, Accélération. Une critique sociale du temps, Paris, La Découverte, 2010 (original ge (...)
  • 7  Fanny Lopez, À bout de flux, Paris, Éditions Divergences, 2022.
  • 8  Ohno Hidetoshi (dir.), Towards the Fiber City. An investigation of Sustainable City Form, Tokyo, M (...)

The ecological, economic and social crises of the early 21st century have prompted us to rethink the role of infrastructure in the movement of goods, living things, energy and information; specifically, in terms of society’s core values (i.e., eco-responsibility, energy conservation, or accessibility) and transformed considerations (i.e., coexistence of living organisms, social interaction, or health safety). As a result, designers must adapt their knowledge to the growing and shifting uncertainties of the contexts in which infrastructure is planned, as well as to the manifold pressures it faces. Characterized by their indefinite timeframes, recurrence and peaks, crises have become key concerns in many designers’ approaches.6 We posit that these developments are renewing infrastructural design principles and practices, especially by reintroducing narratives, imagined worlds and fictional representations into design devices. This opens up spaces for reflection and exchange with the various players involved, incorporating these crisis-specific factors and displaying them to generate greater understanding. These principles are increasingly being adopted when it comes to mobility infrastructure. In Europe, for example, researchers and designers are exploring ways in which extreme circumstances can be used to rethink urban and regional planning, founded on ideas of an “unthinkable future.”7 Similarly, in Japan, excessive transport networks are being challenged by the demographic crisis, leading to alternative ecological narratives depicting an immediate decreased metropolitan future.8 In other words, designers may once again be using probability as an operative device, to portray possible or potential future scenarios whether basic or extreme. But what about other types of infrastructure?

This call for proposals invites authors to submit articles in line with one or more of the following three themes, exploring the relationship between existing or imagined infrastructure arising from climate-related risks.

1. Exploring and representing infrastructural vulnerabilities

  • 9  Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Les limites à la croissance (dans un monde fini), (...)
  • 10  Ulrich Beck, La Société du risque. Sur la voie d’une autre modernité, Paris, Flammarion, 2008 (ori (...)
  • 11  Hartmut Rosa, Accélération. Une critique sociale du temps, Paris, La Découverte, 2010 (original ge (...)

For urban planners and architects alike, thinking about infrastructure has involved figurative explorations of future scenarios, described as imaginary or visionary, emphasizing technical innovation, uninhibited aesthetics and even new societal models. More rarely, however, it has given rise to representations incorporating the limits9 and risks10 associated with increased and, especially, accelerated11 movement. Today, various crises and their aftermath have brought the topic of acceleration to the fore, along with existing pressure on mobility infrastructure and (how it affects) environments. Over the past ten years, the COVID-19 crisis and changing lifestyles have transformed the use of this infrastructure, highlighting tensions between its permanent nature versus its obsolescence. Contributions should explore the interplay between time and space, as illustrated by situations of infrastructural obsolescence, vulnerability and nuisance, leading to their dismantling in the wake of natural disasters or political decisions. Examples may include natural resource depletion, biodiversity collapse, increasing disasters (including health catastrophes), reduced mobility or, conversely, high levels of migration resulting from geopolitical conflicts. In these recurring and random situations conducive to vulnerability, do scales of time and space require new tools for reflection and systems of representation (scenario, fiction, narratives, etc.)? Expected contributions will be based on critical analyses of various kinds of infrastructural vulnerability, both historical and current, addressed through exploratory approaches and systems of representation linked to environmental issues. Contributions may also focus on technical (obsolescence, carbon impact, etc.) or reflective questions relating to vulnerability.

2. Infrastructural adaptation to risk

Since the 1960s, imagined apocalyptic societies have sought to alert and to exist, contrasting with those of a more progressive nature. Think of the ideas of architects such as Cedric Price or the Archigram group (Walking City, 1961). In the midst of the Cold War, with nuclear angst and ecological catastrophe looming on the horizon, these designers rallied an imagination radically at odds with the promise of growth, even to the point of suggesting the demise of the industrial world’s perennial infrastructure. Today, plans for infrastructural transformation, adaptation and disassembly are emerging in response to emergencies, in terms of migration, increased tourist flow and logistics. Regardless of whether they concern the creation, repair, alteration or dismantling of different forms of infrastructure (mobility, logistics, energy, ecology, etc.), do these devices present common and reproducible features? What design methodologies and forms of implementation are shared by architects, urban planners, landscape architects and actors from other disciplines? To what extent and how do the “new” fundamental values attributed to infrastructure give rise to a renewal of the design devices of architects, urban planners or landscape architects? Could forms of reversibility also be imagined to adapt to crises? In this respect, generalizations are to be expected. Based on specific case studies (contemporary infrastructure projects) that present alternate design and representation devices in time of crisis, contributions may also offer a new perspective on the history of imagined risk, as it relates to mobility infrastructure and the evolution of environmental issues.

3. Anticipating future infrastructure

  • 12  Fanny Lopez, À bout de flux, Paris, Éditions Divergences, 2022.

Today, we must consider the role of imaginary worlds in design, as they integrate an awareness of extreme but very real phenomena, already at work. The majority of these imagined infrastructural projects have contributed to shaping representations of possible futures, applying supposedly controllable solutions to common timeframes and parameters involved in movement control, whatever they may be.12 Yet they have often overlooked the risk and uncertainty inherent in physical movements, whether massive or irregular, growing or shrinking, lasting or temporary. In this context, exploring imagined worlds or alternative forms of representation actively propelling infrastructural design will enable us to identify emerging practices. Which imagined worlds are at work when thinking about territorial resilience? The proliferation of risk factors and accelerating changes in infrastructural use have transformed territories and natural environments. It is now clear that climate-related extremes cannot be managed solely through new defensive infrastructure. What new forms of infrastructure will result from these situations? How does such anticipation come about? Who are the players involved, and what are the devices and forms of representation? How do they participate in renewing conceptual and possibly operational approaches to infrastructure in a more resilient environment? Does consideration of the inherent risks and uncertainties associated with emergency or extreme situations, whether real or imagined, create alternative forms of design and representation that envision a less anthropized world? Contributions should provide a critical reflection and analysis of projects that incorporate uncertainty factors as a means of anticipating future infrastructure. Examples include renewable energy (i.e., the use of waves and wind), infrastructure welcoming living organisms (i.e., biodiversity zones, restoration programs), and so on. Contributions may also feature anticipatory narratives (utopias, literature, fiction, etc.) depicting future crises and uncertainties. To what extent can anticipatory projects represent the future?

Procedure for the Transmission of Draft Articles

Proposals for completes articles should be sent by e-mail before 25 Februar 2025 to the Craup’ editorial office: craup.secretariat@gmail.com
For more information, contact Aude Clavel on 06 10 55 11 36 or by email

The journal expects completed articles, not proposals, abstracts or any other form of presentation.

The articles must not exceed 40 000 characters, including spaces.

Languages accepted: French, English.

Articles must be accompanied by:

− 1 biobibliographical record between 5 to 10 lines (name and first name of the author (s), professional status and / or titles, possible institutional link, research themes, latest publications, e-mail address).
− 2 abstracts in French and English.
− 5 key words in French and English.
− The title of the article must also be translated into French or English depending on the language of the paper.

Instructions to Authors

1 / General rules

Italics: Italicize words in foreign languages in relation to the language used. For example: op. cit., ibid., cf., a priori, a posteriori, etc.

No use of bold (with the exception of section titles) nor capitals (with the exception of proper names, institutions, book titles in English, etc.).

American conventions regarding punctuation are to be employed: double quotation marks, period before quotation marks, footnote at the very end of a sentence. For example: “This is how American people, as they say, ‘do it.’”

Authors may opt for British English or American spelling but the convention employed must be used in a consistent way. For example: formalised and formalized are both acceptable, as are color and colour.

Footnotes are to be used to cite sources instead of in-text citations.

Numbers: Up to ten, please spell out the number (for example, nine visitors), beyond ten, use numbers (for example: 100,000 inhabitants).

Dates: Centuries should be in numbers: 19th century. Form the plural of decades without an apostrophe. For example: the 1960s.

For persons who are deceased, add birth and death date in parenthesis. For example: Michel Foucault (1926-1984).

2 / Body of the text

The text must be entered in the Microsoft Word software, using Times New Roman, size 12, line spacing 1.5, without any special formatting, except titles, headings, captions and paragraph breaks.

3 / Quotations

Quotations of less than 3 lines will be inserted into the text and placed between quotation marks.

Quotes of more than 3 lines will be indented to the left and right, size 10 (not 12), and without quotation marks.

4 / Bibliographic References

Bibliographic references and references in footnotes are to be formatted according to the same model, although references in footnotes will include a page number.

Bibliographical references will also be grouped in alphabetical order (according to author names) and will appear at the end of the article in a section titled “Bibliography.”

Please use the following models:

For a book: First name Last name, Title, City of publishing, Publishing house, year of publication, p. xx.

For a collective work: First name Last name and First name Last name (dir./coord./eds./etc.), Title, City of publishing, Publishing house, year of publication, page, or First name Last name et al., Title, City of publishing, Publishing house, year of publication, p. xx.

For a chapter of a collective work: First name Last name, “Chapter Title,” in First name Last name, (dir./coord./eds./etc.), Book Title, City of publishing, Publishing house, year of publication, p. xx.

For a journal article: First Name Last Name, “Article Title,” Journal Title, Vol./N °, Date of Publication, p. xx.

For electronic reference: the following text will be inserted at the end of the reference, with the corresponding link: [online] [url], accessed on 01/01/21.

5 / Illustrations, charts and tables

Images accompanying the text should be scanned in high resolution (300 dpi minimum) in JPEG, PNG or TIFF formats. Text files should be distinct from graphic files.
Horizontal images (in landscape mode) are preferred as they are more consistent with page layout constraints. If vertical images are unavoidable, please consider pairing the image with another vertical image
.

The author must verify that the images or figures of which he is not the author are free of rights.
Otherwise, the author must request permission to publish from the owner of the image or figure before submitting it to the magazine.

Tables are considered to be figures and must follow the same instructions in terms of file name, figure name, image format (jpg or tif), image size and legibility.

Illustrations, charts and tables must be captioned in the following manner:

The title of the illustrations should be preceded by the letters “Figure [no.]” or “Table [no.]” and will appear above the illustration.

The image caption and credits (source, copyright, etc.) will appear under the illustration on two separate lines.

Editorial Line

Placed in the fields of architectural, urban and landscape research, the Cahiers de la recherche architecturale initially developed from the 1970s in research labs of the French schools of architecture, before becoming the Cahiers de la recherche architecturale et urbaine in 1999. The journal initiates in 2018 a new formula online, Les Cahiers: Journal for the Study of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape, targeted towards the research communities concerned by intentional transformations of space, whatever the scales. The journal aims at meeting current interests and issues in these fields, seeking to renew them and to open new directions of research. Three main research issues are more directly questioned. One specifically concerns theoretical aspects, in order to develop exchanges and discussions between theories of design, planning, architecture and landscape. Another issue refers to the materiality of the city, the technical know-how involved in spatial transformation, but also the material dimension of of transfer and mobilization phenomena, often analyzed in other journals from a-spatial angles. Lastly, the third issue questions the project and its design, which holds a special place in the sciences and the practice of space (performative roles of projects, theories of practice). These three poles call for interdisciplinary works, dedicated to trace in-depth explanations of the transformations of the built environment at the Anthropocene Era. The expected scientific production refers to common criteria of peer reviewing processes. It could pay a particular attention to the issues of pictures and visual production in a field where images can serve as discourse.

Les Cahiers: Journal for the Study of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape online issue two or three time a year a thematic folder dedicated to a specific and problematized theme, and which consists of around ten articles in French and English. A call for papers is broadcasted for each thematic heading. Proposals may be in French or English. The evaluation is peer-rewiewed.

The online magazine has also 2 headings to accommodate miscellaneous articles, and outside thematic folders. Proposals may be in French or English. The texts are evaluated and peer-rewiewed.

Perspectives on Contemporary Research: Academic articles that present current and unpublished research, unpublished articles and essays on subjects related to the emergence of new themes and accounts of scholarly methodologies and practices development, book reviews.

Research Materials: The republication of texts, the translation of articles previously unpublished in French, documents such as logbooks, diaries and personal journals that shed light on the activities of researchers in their contemporary contexts, interviews with scholars and practitioners involved in ongoing research.

Editorial Board

Chief Editor:
GAUTHIER BOLLE

CELINE BARRERE
MANUEL BELLO-MARCANO
GAIA CARAMELLINO
ENRICO CHAPEL
BENJAMIN CHAVARDES
AUDREY COURBEBAISSE
MAXIME DECOMMER
ANAT FALBEL
YANKEL FIJALKOW
RALPH GHOCHE
XAVIER GUILLOT
CAROLINE MANIAQUE
ROBERTA MORELLI
JULIETTE POMMIER
FRÉDÉRIC POUSIN
PAOLA SAVOLDI
JEAN SOUVIRON
CORINNE TIRY-ONO
ANDREA URLBERGER

Editorial Assistant
AUDE CLAVEL

Notes

1  Stephen Graham & Simon Marvin, « Splintering Urbanism at 20 and the ‘Infrastructural Turn’ », Journal of Urban Technology, vol. 29, n° 1, 2022, p. 169-175 ; Nikhil Anand, Akhil Gupta, Hannah Appel (dir.), The Promise of Infrastructure, Durham, Duke University Press, 2018.

2   « New infrastructures are promises made in the present about our future », ibid., 2018, p. 27.

 See Lewis Mumford's criticism of this in, for example The South in Architecture: The Dancy Lectures, Alabama College, 1941, New York/Hartcourt/Brace and Company, 1941.

 Nathalie Roseau, Le Futur des métropoles. Temps et infrastructures, Genève, MetisPresses, 2022.

 Lewis Mumford, Le Mythe de la machine. Le Pentagone de la puissance, t. 2, Paris, Fayard, 1973, p. 319 [original edition : The Pentagon of Power, 1970].

 This is the hypothesis of architect and urban planner Paola Vigano, for example, who points to the existence of “a very close relationship between uncertainty, risk perception, fear and the use of scenario making.” See Paola Vigano, Les Territoires de l’urbanisme. Le projet comme producteur de connaissance, Genève, MetisPresses, 2016 [original italian edition, 2010), p. 205.

 Elena Cogato-Lanza, Farzaneh Bahrami, Simon Berger, Luca Pattaroni (dir.), Post-car world. Future de la ville-territoire, Genève, MetisPresses, 2021, p. 11.

3  Ohno Hidetoshi (dir.), Towards the Fiber City. An investigation of Sustainable City Form, Tokyo, MPF Press, 2004.

4  Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Les limites à la croissance (dans un monde fini), Paris, Éditions Rue de l’Échiquier, 2022 (original english edition,1972).

5  Ulrich Beck, La Société du risque. Sur la voie d’une autre modernité, Paris, Flammarion, 2008 (original german edition, 1986).

6  Hartmut Rosa, Accélération. Une critique sociale du temps, Paris, La Découverte, 2010 (original german edition, 2004).

7  Fanny Lopez, À bout de flux, Paris, Éditions Divergences, 2022.

8  Ohno Hidetoshi (dir.), Towards the Fiber City. An investigation of Sustainable City Form, Tokyo, MPF Press, 2004.

9  Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Les limites à la croissance (dans un monde fini), Paris, Éditions Rue de l’Échiquier, 2022 (original english edition,1972).

10  Ulrich Beck, La Société du risque. Sur la voie d’une autre modernité, Paris, Flammarion, 2008 (original german edition, 1986).

11  Hartmut Rosa, Accélération. Une critique sociale du temps, Paris, La Découverte, 2010 (original german edition, 2004).

12  Fanny Lopez, À bout de flux, Paris, Éditions Divergences, 2022.

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