Vol. 23 No. 2 (2025): Nature, Myth, Design
Genealogie del mito / Genealogies of Myth

Paesaggi del tempo profondo tra mitopoiesi e desiderio di permanenza.

Paola Sabbion
Dipartimento Architettura e Design, Università degli Studi di Genova, Italia

Published 2026-05-08

Keywords

  • Geological turn,
  • Deep time,
  • Nature,
  • Uncanny,
  • Mythopoiesis

How to Cite

Sabbion, P. (2026). Paesaggi del tempo profondo tra mitopoiesi e desiderio di permanenza. Ri-Vista. Research for Landscape Architecture, 23(2), 94–113. https://doi.org/10.36253/rv-17947

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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