Overview

The book discusses the ways in which the project can critically contribute to an affirmative biopolitical action of substantial emancipation; it considers space an essential agent, and not only a collective capital, or a support, for adapting our lives to the recent profoundly changed conditions. In all the new research on the future of urban space, the renewed interest in life, tragically affected by health, ecological and socio-political crises, raises a crucial theoretical and projective question: what role can space play in maintaining and promoting life in the broader sense of bos? This book is based on the conviction that there is an urgent need to revisit the Foucauldian notion of biopolitics - free, however, from the privilege given to the goal of control - to rethink the project of the city and territory in transition in an affirmative and emancipatory way. The 'biopolitical garden' designates both the mental place and the set of concrete spaces in which the critical thinking developed in this book takes place. Profound and original, it starts from a consideration of the modern and contemporary project as one committed to the maintenance and emancipation of a population. Re-reading a series of paradigmatic projects from the twentieth century, Paola Vigan acknowledges the long-term validity of the three fundamental concepts of functional space, natural space, and social space. She then proposes a theoretical renewal that considers the value of space as an agent subject endowed with its own vitality. Finally, the projects developed by the author in recent years provide a laboratory for 'situating' her thinking within a perspective of spatial, social, and environmental justice.

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9781638401209

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"Paola Vigan architect and urbanist, is Full Professor in Urban Theory and Urban Design at the EPFL (CH) where she directs the Habitat Research Center and the Lab-U and at IUAV Venice (IT). She received the Grand Prix de l'Urbanisme in 2013, the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the UCLouvain in 2016 in the frame of ""Utopia for our Time"", the Flemish Culture Award for Architecture in 2017, and the Golden medal to the career of Milano Triennale in 2018. In 2022, she receives the Schelling Prize for Architectural Theory. Together with Bernardo Secchi, she founded Studio (1990-2014) working on numerous projects and visions in Europe. Since 2015, StudioPaolaVigan works on the ecological and social transition of cities, landscapes and territories designing urban and territorial projects and realizing public spaces in Europe. In 2019, her work has been exhibited at the Shenzen Biennale and in 2021 at the Venice Biennale."

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