Making Darkness: Plants and the Ecology of the City

As heat-waves are increasingly hitting cities in Europe “architects, planners, and officials are racing to lower the temperature of the landscape inventively redesigning it around three ancient forms of cooling: water, soil, and shade” (Eric Klinenberg, “Taking the Heat,” The New Yorker, Aug. 24 & 31, 2026, p. 28-34).

The seminar focuses not only on the relationship of plants with architecture and the city. It also takes the perspective of natural history directed to the anthropogenic environment, through which the traditional dualism of nature and city is dissolved, exchanged for the notion of an environment where the social sphere is extended to all living organisms, mutually dependent.

The notion of “making darkness” in the seminar’s title addresses alternate examples of modernity that aim to include ecological systems, counter to the classic human-centered perspective. This course will evaluate several aspects of urban space that question and expand the understanding of sustainability; for instance: the unmaintained vs standard maintenance practices, the inclusion of natural biological processes in an urban environment, the density of plant and animal species in the city in relationship to the notions of ecosystem service and the biosphere, and the spatial qualities of such a condition, to mention some.

'This seminar includes weekly readings with discussions and an introduction to academic standards in scientific research and the treatment of references. The course foresees a few visits in Munich. The final assignment is to produce a reader.

First meetings and introduction:
Wednesday, 07.10.26, 2:30 pm, room N113, Infanteriestraße