The colloquium investigated the relationship between the design and maintenance of living systems, seeking to cultivate practices, terminology, and theoretical insights into approaches that attempt to maintain otherwise.
26. – 28. February 2025, ETH Zürich Hönggerberg and Zentrum
About
The current separation between landscape design and landscape maintenance is no longer tenable. Unpredictable weather patterns and dwindling water supplies intersect with cuts to municipal budgets and increasingly precarious conditions for landscape labourers. And yet entrenched project structures and practices limit opportunities for exchange and dialogue. Consequently, landscapes are simplified to facilitate repetitive, low-skilled maintenance, limiting their ecological complexity, resilience and aesthetic potential.
In light of this, the 2025 NSL Colloquium Beyond Maintenance investigates the relationship between design and maintenance of living systems, seeking to cultivate practices, terminology, and theoretical insights into ways of maintaining otherwise. On the one hand, innovative management techniques can introduce a much-needed sensitivity and open-endedness to design practice. On the other hand, iterative design thinking can enliven routine maintenance patterns to make the most of limited resources. This intersection is a space of opportunity, both to question disciplinary boundaries — including the uneven distribution of prestige, precarity, and compensation that underlie them — and to move from attempting to control more-than-human nature towards a performative call and response.
Programme and Locations
26 February, ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg, HIL E4
09:30-10:00 Registration
10:00-11:00 Introduction: Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard and the organising team
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-13:30 Panel 1: Releasing Control: Jessica Caporusso (PhD candidate, York University, Canada), Ludivine Gragy (Studio Ludivine Gragy, Berlin), Emily Knox (Auburn University, Alabama), Beatriz Saladich (architect and landscape architect, Barcelona)
13:30-15:00 Lunch (not provided)
15:00-17:00 Panel 2: Enhancing What Remains: Thomas Cabai (PhD Candidate, Politecnico Milano), Dr. Nicole de Lalouvière (ETH Zürich), Dr. Karin Reisinger (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Dane Carlson (Principia College, Illinois)
17:00-17:30 Break
17:30-18:30 Keynote: Prof. Dr. Jamie Lorimer (University of Oxford): Governing through Gaia: Modulating the earth system to deliver metabolic repair
18:30-20:00 Apéro
27 February, ETH Zürich, Centre, MM C78.1
09:30-10:00 Registration
10:00-11:00 Keynote: Prof. Dr. Andrew S. Mathews (University of California): How Noticing Leads to Obligation: Tree Care and Landscape Burning in Italy
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-12:30 Keynote: Prof. Michelle Franco (Ohio State University): Jardineros
12:30-13:30 Panel 3: Landscapes of Labour: Leah Kahler (McHarg Fellow at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Julian Raxworthy (University of Canberra, Australia)
13:30-15:00 Lunch (not provided)
15:00-17:00 Panel 4: Commoning Maintenance: Aron Chang (Water Leaders Institute / Civic Studio, New Orleans), Carolina Acevedo (PUyA: Paisaje, Urbanismo y Arquitectura), Malú Cayetano (Paisanaje, Spain), Dr. Sara Jacobs (University of British Columbia)
17:00-17:30 Break
17:30-18:30 Keynote: Jenny Jones (Terremoto): Labor, Care, and Radical Gardens of Love and Interconnectedness
28 February, ETH Zürich, Centre, MM C78.1
09:30-10:00 Registration
10:00-11:00 Keynote: Véronique Faucheur (atelier le balto): Art of Garden or Art of Gardening?
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-13:30 Panel 5: Experimental Landscapes: Dr. Zihao Zhang (City College of New York), Mark Krieger & Gabi Lerch (Ostschweizer Fachhochschule, Rapperswil), Dr. Christoph Kueffer (ETH Zürich), Michael Geffel (LND LAB), Khyati Saraf (Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc, USA)
13:30-15:00 Lunch (not provided)
15:00-17:00 Panel 6: Bridging Disciplines: Lara de Schutter & Seppe de Blust & Sotiria Kornaropoulo (51N4E), Aymeric Bey & Jeroen Deseyn & Nico Vandenplas (Plant en Houtgoed, Belgium), Sylvie Viollier (Paysage et Environnement, Geneva, Switzerland), Adrienne Heflich (Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc, USA), Jonah Goldstein (Brooklyn Bridge Park)
17:00-17:30 Break
17:30-18:30 Concluding Round Table
Programme
Registration
Registration is open until 18 February 2025 (day 1 until 25 February) via this link.
