Published 2026-05-08
Keywords
- Geological turn,
- Deep time,
- Nature,
- Uncanny,
- Mythopoiesis
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2025 Paola Sabbion

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
In an era when ecological imaginaries tend to equate nature with a mutable, vegetal realm of growth and transformation, a more radical narrative emerges — that of the inorganic, the endur-ing, and the indifferent: a geological nature that asserts itself as a mute, opaque, and solid archive of deep time. The growing interest in rock, soil, and the Earth’s deep dynamics within the languag-es of contemporary art, architecture, and landscape is interpreted as a long-term mythopoiesis, in which nature is perceived not as care or refuge, but as a multiple alterity in which we are immersed. This essay investigates some contemporary design trajectories through the lens of the myth of a na-ture ‘indifferent’ to the human, engaging with the concepts of deep time and non-organic matter. Through theoretical and design references, the essay explores how the inorganic dimension can re-introduce into landscape design a tension between discontinuity and permanence, emergence and sedimentation.
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