Places Journal
@placesjournal.bsky.social
Independent nonprofit public scholarship on architecture, landscape, and urbanism. Read: http://placesjournal.org | Sign up: http://placesjournal.org/newsletter
The Arkansas Delta has much to say about ecological collapse, economic abandonment, human persistence & the paradoxes of a century of American “progress."
Our critic-in-residence @timothyaschuler.bsky.social on "The Sunk Country," with photographs by Tim Hursley:
placesjournal.org/article/the-...
The Sunk Country | Places Journal
The Arkansas Delta and the Paradoxes of American 'Progress'
placesjournal.org
Our May newsletter:
Łukasz Stanek on architectural gifts; J. Matt on wildfire recovery in Paradise, CA; Elin Anna Labba on the forced migration of Sámi people; and more gems from our archive by Sasha Archibald, Thomas Beller & Garrett Dash Nelson
Read & subscribe! mailchi.mp/placesjourna...
Cardboard boxes make possible a global apparatus of commerce, consumption and reuse, displaying (& delivering) the fruits of capitalism while embodying its waste, inequity & exploitation.
From @shannonmattern.bsky.social, on the social history of the cardboard box: placesjournal.org/article/soci...
World in a Box: Cardboard Media and the Geographic Imagination
Cardboard’s ubiquity rests on simple claims: I can hold that, and I can go there. But cardboard boxes hold a world of meaning — a global anatomy of commerce, consumption, disposal, and reuse.
placesjournal.org
In the 1930s, a few modernist architects designed schools for disabled children that proposed radical visions of civic care, democratizing access to education and enriching the lives of thousands of young people.
A brief history, by David Serlin: placesjournal.org/article/mode...
Disabling Modernism
During the first decade of the New Deal, modernist architects designed schools for disabled children that proposed radical visions of civic care.
placesjournal.org
"The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow," a moving work of memoir & reportage by Elin Anna Labba on the forced displacement of Sámi people, is out now @uminnpress.bsky.social.
For a sneak peek, check out this essay by Labba, adapted from her book (which you should read!): placesjournal.org/article/the-...
The Displaced
For decades, Norway and Sweden forcibly displaced the Indigenous Northern Sámi from their ancestral lands. The ensuing migrations have torn Sámi society apart from within.
placesjournal.org
"The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow," a moving work of memoir & reportage by Elin Anna Labba on the forced displacement of Sámi people, is out now
@uminnpress.bsky.social.
For a sneak peek, check out this essay by Labba, adapted from her book (which you should read!): placesjournal.org/article/the-...
The Displaced
For decades, Norway and Sweden forcibly displaced the Indigenous Northern Sámi from their ancestral lands. The ensuing migrations have torn Sámi society apart from within.
placesjournal.org
Balancing calculations of financial risk with the desire to bolster African American neighborhoods, Black-owned insurance companies of the 20th century were often caught in an actuarial double bind.
By Ginger Nolan, winner of the inaugural SAH | Places Prize:
placesjournal.org/article/plac...
Black Capitalism, Insurance, and the City
Balancing business demands and the desire to bolster African American communities, Black-owned insurance companies of the 20th century were caught in an actuarial double bind.
placesjournal.org
In “The Architectural Gift,” architectural historian
Łukasz Stanek and Places editor Frances Richard discuss the gifting of buildings as a potent form of geopolitical reshuffling. What influence do such gifts have on cities in transition?
Here's their exchange: placesjournal.org/article/the-...
The Architectural Gift
Gifted buildings are potent mechanisms of geopolitical reshuffling, premised on an uneven power relation between giver and receiver. How do such exchanges shape cities in transition?
placesjournal.org
"Some Sámi say that the land passes on our thanks to those coming after us. I believe it also receives our thanks to those who lived before us."
Elin Anna Labba on the forced displacement of Sámi people, adapted from her forthcoming book @uminnpress.bsky.social: placesjournal.org/article/the-...
The Displaced
For decades, Norway and Sweden forcibly displaced the Indigenous Northern Sámi from their ancestral lands. The ensuing migrations have torn Sámi society apart from within.
placesjournal.org
Weaving into her essay the voices of displaced Sámi people, Labba tells the story of her ancestral community: "Some Sámi say that the land passes on our thanks to those coming after us. I believe it also receives our thanks to those who lived before us."
Translated by Fiona Graham.
For decades, Norway and Sweden forcibly displaced Sámi people from their ancestral lands. Authorities seemed to think reindeer herders could live anywhere. But nomadic people aren’t rootless.
An essay by Elin Anna Labba, adapted from her forthcoming book: placesjournal.org/article/the-...
The Displaced
For decades, Norway and Sweden forcibly displaced the Indigenous Northern Sámi from their ancestral lands. The ensuing migrations have torn Sámi society apart from within.
placesjournal.org"I am certain [Paradesians] ought to be able to return to a home that is re-envisioned to exact a less destructive impact on the land; to return to systems supporting life, healthcare & property insurance that are redesigned away from profit to function as community safety nets." - J. Matt
Californians in wildland areas may now have a harder time insuring their homes against wildfire due to new policy cuts by State Farm.
Writer J. Matt documents how Paradise is still recovering from the 2018 Camp Fire: "Where should Paradesians go if not home?" placesjournal.org/article/para...
Lessons from Paradise on Fire
Five years after the deadliest wildfire in California history, what lessons can be learned from how the town of Paradise is recovering — and how it’s preparing for the next blaze?
placesjournal.org
Responding to a wave of cultural and scholarly interest in repair, this new series "Repair Manual" points toward a world in which the repair of existing structures and landscapes has become more critical than the design of new ones.
Check out our latest newsletter: mailchi.mp/placesjourna...
With so much repair to be done, how should we begin? @shannonmattern.bsky.social offers a path forward by considering the form & function of repair manuals — the directives they offer & opportunities they inspire. How can we apply the manual to our public spaces?
placesjournal.org/article/step...
A Political Ecology of the Repair Manual
The best repair manuals present a vision of repair that is social, embodied, intuitive, and accessible. What if we extend these principles beyond material objects, to the scale of civic systems and sp...
placesjournal.org
What about landscape? In the Netherlands, climate adaptation programs have managed flood risk by framing nature as modellable, calculable & subservient to human design. But as Lizzie Yarina argues, ecological repair won't happen through abstract metrics:
placesjournal.org/article/this...
On the Rhine, the Netherlands Offers a Model for Climate Adaptation. Should Others Follow?
A critique of Room for the River, the Dutch water management and flood control strategy.
placesjournal.org
Education can be a powerful force for change, but according to Jorge Otero Pailos, "architecture is still being taught much the same way as in the 19th century." He says we need a new architectural imagination that focuses on preservation of existing structures:
placesjournal.org/article/repa...
Repairing Architecture Schools
Architecture education has long upheld the ideal that to be an architect is “to build.” Now we must invest in preservation and repair. In short, we need a pedagogical revolution.
placesjournal.orgMost people wouldn't look twice at the deteriorating facade of a 60-year-old building. But for architects Kiel Moe & Daniel Friedman, the history of the teak windows of the Salk Institute are a compelling example of how to repair architecture that is broken. placesjournal.org/article/tend...
Tending Building: An Ethic of Repair in Architecture
To tend a building is to work with its historical, environmental, and biological tendencies. Tending requires us to direct our attention away from cultural expectations of newness, and to design in co...
placesjournal.orgIt's well known that buildings produce an enormous amt of global emissions. But @danielbarber.bsky.social argues architecture "can be understood as the cultural frame — an apologist even — for this processing of fuel. Can we build otherwise? Should we build at all?" placesjournal.org/article/draw...
Drawing the Line: Architecture of Repair in the Anthropocene
In the Anthropocene, innovative architecture will rely less on formal or material invention and more on repair, retrofit, renovation — on the collective pursuit of decarbonization. For architects this...
placesjournal.org
We have repair manuals for our cars, our refrigerators, our laptops...but what might a repair manual for the built environment look like?
Architecture, landscape arch & urban design are undeniably complicit in longstanding patterns of waste and consumption. Can they also be part of repair? 👇
Five years after the deadliest wildfire in California history, what lessons can we learn from how the people of Paradise are recovering — and how the community is preparing for the next blaze?
In Butte County, California, with photos and words by J. Matt:
placesjournal.org/article/para...
Lessons from Paradise on Fire
Five years after the deadliest wildfire in California history, what lessons can be learned from how the town of Paradise is recovering — and how it’s preparing for the next blaze?
placesjournal.org
This is the fifth essay in "Repair Manual," a new series, supported by the Graham Foundation, that confronts the brokenness of our overburdened planet by acknowledging the brokenness of the built environment.
How might the design professions shift from building the world to repairing it?
Architecture education upholds the ideal that to be an architect is “to build.” For Jorge Otero-Pailos, a changing climate demands a new architectural imagination, a pedagogical revolution toward caring for the built environment we already have.
A conversation: placesjournal.org/article/repa...
Repairing Architecture Schools
Architecture education has long upheld the ideal that to be an architect is “to build.” Now we must invest in preservation and repair. In short, we need a pedagogical revolution.
placesjournal.orgWe’re happy to announce that Gabrielle Bruney has been chosen as the 2024 recipient of “Writing the City," our collaboration w/ @columbiajournalism.bsky.social. Bruney's project will focus on benches & the contested politics & history of public things in urban life. placesjournal.org/news/gabriel...
Gabrielle Bruney Chosen for “Writing the City” 2024
Gabrielle Bruney is the third recipient of the award for ambitious urban journalism, a collaboration between Places and Columbia Journalism School.
placesjournal.org
We’re excited to announce that Gabrielle Bruney has been chosen as the latest recipient of “Writing the City," our collaboration w/ Columbia Journalism School. Bruney's project will focus on benches & the contested politics & history of public things in urban life.
placesjournal.org/news/gabriel...
Gabrielle Bruney Chosen for “Writing the City” 2024
Gabrielle Bruney is the third recipient of the award for ambitious urban journalism, a collaboration between Places and Columbia Journalism School.
placesjournal.orgIt's a party, and anybody who wants a sustainable, reparative future for the built environment — and the world — is invited! Check out @shannonmattern.bsky.social's new essay, "Step by Step," and other interlocuters in our new "Repair Manual" series: placesjournal.org/series/repai...
«the repair manual establishes what can and should be fixed in the first place»
It’s always a party for the brain when there’s a new text by @shannonmattern.bsky.social, but this one is particularly good.
It's a party, and anybody who wants a sustainable, reparative future for the built environment — and the world — is invited! Check out Mattern's essay and other interlocuters in our new "Repair Manual" series: placesjournal.org/series/repai...
«the repair manual establishes what can and should be fixed in the first place»
It’s always a party for the brain when there’s a new text by @shannonmattern.bsky.social, but this one is particularly good.
You can read Mattern's essay alongside the other essays in Repair Manual — on maintenance, tending, and other forms of stewardship of the built and natural environments.
As always, our thanks to the Graham Foundation for supporting this series. placesjournal.org/series/repai...
Repair Manual
How might the design professions adapt to the paradigm shift from building the world to repairing the world?
placesjournal.org
The best repair manuals, Mattern argues, present repair as social, embodied, intuitive, & accessible.
"What if we extend these principles to civic systems and public spaces?...Is repair about reclaiming a past or building a future? Is it about conserving the status quo or inciting systemic change?"
Our new series "Repair Manual" examines how design professions might shift from building the world to repairing it. But what can we learn from manuals themselves?
In her latest, @shannonmattern.bsky.social turns to the repair manual, as genre and political ecology: placesjournal.org/article/step...
A Political Ecology of the Repair Manual
The best repair manuals present a vision of repair that is social, embodied, intuitive, and accessible. What if we extend these principles beyond material objects, to the scale of civic systems and sp...
placesjournal.org
"Any city is an epic of encounters, adaptations, triumphs & tragedies, and any city’s historiography remains a perpetual work in progress. Like other metropolises, Dhaka is a place where urban logics are tested & adjusted."
From Adnan Morshed, on urbanism in Dhaka: placesjournal.org/article/hist...
Dhaka: History of the Present
Dhaki is a paradigmatic South Asian megalopolis. It is also a model for what a city can be, where optimism and pessimism, adaptation and dysfunction, affluence and poverty flourish without bounds.
placesjournal.org
"To understand possible future climates, we rely on modeled systems. My aim here is to bring the messiness to the surface."
Next in Repair Manual, Lizzie Yarina turns to the Dutch model of climate adaptation, and the tradeoffs it has made between nature & people.
placesjournal.org/article/this...
On the Rhine, the Netherlands Offers a Model for Climate Adaptation. Should Others Follow?
A critique of Room for the River, the Dutch water management and flood control strategy.
placesjournal.org
In the second installment of "Repair Manual," architect Kiel Moe & professor Daniel S. Friedman discuss the teak windows of the Salk Institute — and an ethics of "tending."
"To tend a building," they write, "is to design in consonance with inevitable change..."
placesjournal.org/article/tend...
If you missed it, check out "Drawing the Line" from @danielbarber.bsky.social. It's the first article in "Repair Manual," our new series about how the design professions — premised on growth & consumption — might shift from building the world to repairing it: placesjournal.org/series/repair-manual/
If you missed it, check out "Drawing the Line" from @danielbarber.bsky.social. It's the first article in "Repair Manual," our new series about how the design professions — premised on growth & consumption — might shift from building the world to repairing it: placesjournal.org/series/repair-manual/
Just out on Places Journal, my essay "Drawing the Line"
In which I lament the persistence of 'business-as-usual' approaches in architecture and elsewhere, and analyze the permissions structures that support it: in particular 'sustainability' and 'net-zero.'
placesjournal.org/article/draw...
Drawing the Line
In the Anthropocene, innovative architecture will rely less on formal or material invention and more on repair, retrofit, renovation — on the collective pursuit of decarbonization.
placesjournal.org
"Becoming expert in repair is, for architects today, a growth opportunity. Or better, a de-growth opportunity."
From the incisive and insightful @danielbarber.bsky.social, a must-read for anybody who cares about the future of the built environment in climate crisis
placesjournal.org/article/draw...
Drawing the Line
In the Anthropocene, innovative architecture will rely less on formal or material invention and more on repair, retrofit, renovation — on the collective pursuit of decarbonization.
placesjournal.org
Dhaka is a paradigmatic South Asian megalopolis. It's also a model for what a city can be — a place defined by its unpredictability, where urban logics are tested, where adaptation & dysfunction, affluence & poverty flourish without bounds.
From Adnan Z. Morshed:
placesjournal.org/article/hist...
Dhaka: History of the Present
Dhaki is a paradigmatic South Asian megalopolis. It is also a model for what a city can be, where optimism and pessimism, adaptation and dysfunction, affluence and poverty flourish without bounds.
placesjournal.org
This winter, we present a second special series on poems that can be read as maps.
Curated by poet G.E. Patterson, "Poems as Maps II" features twelve poets writing about their homes and their elsewheres — imprints of place(s) lived, visited, and imagined.
placesjournal.org/series/poems...
Poems as Maps II
Twelve poets write about their homes and their elsewheres — places on the map that have left imprints, that hold roots.
placesjournal.org
Our masthead is now bigger than it’s ever been, thanks to a generous grant from the Arcadia Fund supporting new staff at Places.
We're eager to bring you even more of the public scholarship you love on the future of buildings, landscapes, and cities!
placesjournal.org/news/places-...
Places Awarded Capacity-Building Grant from Arcadia
Our masthead will be expanding thanks to a generous grant from Arcadia, which will support new editorial staff at Places.
placesjournal.orgWhat Places essays are you thinking about or returning to as you enter the new year?
Is it your New Year’s resolution to read more sharp, provocative and timely writing by extraordinary public scholars & journalists? Well, do we know the journal for you!
Now is a wonderful time to get lost in the Places archive. Or subscribe to our free newsletter.
placesjournal.org/newsletter/
Sign up for the Places Journal Newsletter
Get essential reading on architecture, landscape, and urbanism delivered to your inbox. It's an email you'll want to open.
placesjournal.org
Is it your New Year’s resolution to read more sharp, provocative and timely writing by extraordinary public scholars & journalists? Well, do we know the journal for you!
Now is a wonderful time to get lost in the Places archive. Or subscribe to our free newsletter.
placesjournal.org/newsletter/
Sign up for the Places Journal Newsletter
Get essential reading on architecture, landscape, and urbanism delivered to your inbox. It's an email you'll want to open.
placesjournal.orgFrom Brooks: "If you want to change the world, support a small magazine"...err...journal of nonprofit independent public scholarship! Places is full of thoughtful, important writing on the built environment, from Shannon & other exceptional authors. Subscribe (for free)! placesjournal.org/newsletter
Sign up for the Places Journal Newsletter
Get essential reading on architecture, landscape, and urbanism delivered to your inbox. It's an email you'll want to open.
placesjournal.org
If you missed @shannonmattern.bsky.social’s brilliant essay “Fountain Society,” @nytimes.com's David Brooks recommends the read & we do too! His Sidney Awards feature the best long-form essays published this year in small publications.
Read "Fountain Society" here: placesjournal.org/article/drin...
Fountain Society
The humble drinking fountain can tell us much about a society’s attitudes towards health, hygiene, equity, and virtue, and about its understanding of public goods and civic responsibilities.
placesjournal.org
If you missed Shannon Mattern’s brilliant essay “Fountain Society,” @nytimes.com's David Brooks recommends the read & we do too! The Sidney Awards feature the best long-form essays published this year in small publications.
You can read "Fountain Society" here: placesjournal.org/article/drin...
Fountain Society
The humble drinking fountain can tell us much about a society’s attitudes towards health, hygiene, equity, and virtue, and about its understanding of public goods and civic responsibilities.
placesjournal.org
Fairy tales can seem like dreamy voyages, steered not by plot but by the wild garden of the self. What happens, though, when a machine, in the form of generative AI, shares the wheel?
The latest installment of Fairy Tale Architecture, from Andrew & Kate Bernheimer: placesjournal.org/article/fair...
Kew Gardens
Fairy tales can seem like dreamy voyages, steered not by plot but by the wild garden of the self. What happens when a machine — in the form of generative AI — shares the wheel?
placesjournal.orgMany Places articles wouldn’t exist without the intrepid reporting, inspired research & exceptional prose of independent writers. We think the design fields—and the internet itself—are stronger for them. Donate to help us pay writers fees that affirm the value of their labor placesjournal.org/donate
Donate to Places Journal
Stand up for work that matters. Support public scholarship on design today.
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Congratulations to landscape historian Sonja Dümpelmann on receiving the 2023 Bradford Williams Medal for her Places essay “Let All Be Educated Alike..." which examines the influence of Frederick Law Olmsted & Booker T. Washington on landscape architecture pedagogy.
placesjournal.org/news/sonja-d...
Sonja Dümpelmann Receives ASLA Bradford Williams Medal
Landscape historian Sonja Dümpelmann has been awarded the 2023 Bradford Williams Medal for her Places essay “Let All Be Educated Alike Up to a Certain Point.”
placesjournal.org
When you support Places, you're supporting more than a journal. You're contributing to the vitality of a dynamic nexus of collaborators — a transdisciplinary hub linking readers, writers & institutions dedicated to critical thinking and writing on the built environment.
placesjournal.org/donate/
Donate to Places Journal
Stand up for work that matters. Support public scholarship on design today.
placesjournal.org