Architecture and the “imaginary planet”. Projects and technologies for an intermediate landscape in the city

Abstract

The traditional ecological and environmentalist thinking that theorised the ‘return to nature’ by contrasting cities and nature seems to be unable to remedy the destructive relationship between city and biosphere. For this reason, it is necessary to rethink the relationship between anthropised and biotic systems, in order to respect the objectives of the Paris Agreement. This rethinking process involves imagining a ‘third space’ with a positive environmental value, much like an intermediate landscape in which buildings and urban realities can be designed - in a backcasting process - as tools capable of incorporating different types of ‘biospheric’ capabilities. The essay investigates urban forestation technologies by evaluating their potential and long-term limitations in extreme climatic scenarios.