Terra Forma Speculative Mapping

Paris Watershed and Underground Environment

Authors

  • Alexandra Arènes SOC (Société d’Objets Cartographiques)
  • Axelle Grégoire SOC (Société d’Objets Cartographiques)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59490/footprint.17.2.7089

Abstract

This visual essay discusses an object-map of Paris basin soil and subsoil, commissioned for the Element Terre exhibition within the Architecture and Landscape Biennial 2022 (Versailles, France). To create this map, we contacted actors and researchers whose work is related to soil: earth scientists, materials specialists, and human habitat specialists. Using a model from the book Terra Forma: A Book of Speculative Maps, we designed a specific reference system, the ‘soil’ model, to map entities, movements and conflicts in the underground environment(s). The resulting map aims to reveal what is going on beneath our feet, what is hidden from view, to go beyond representations that are limited to the surface.

Author Biographies

Alexandra Arènes, SOC (Société d’Objets Cartographiques)

SOC (Société d’Objets Cartographiques) was co-founded by Alexandra Arènes, Axelle Grégoire and Soheil Hajmirbaba. The studio conducts research involving a network of actors from various disciplines with the aim of encouraging exchanges between the arts, sciences and architecture. Alexandra and Axelle wrote Terra Forma: A Book of Speculative Maps (MIT Press, 2022). Alexandra is Doctor in Architecture (University of Manchester, 2022). In collaboration with scientists from the Critical Zone, she develops maps of the earth’s cycles: Gaïa-graphy. Axelle is an architect and doctoral student at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. She develops projects that contribute to renewing the representation of territories.

Axelle Grégoire, SOC (Société d’Objets Cartographiques)

SOC (Société d’Objets Cartographiques) was co-founded by Alexandra Arènes, Axelle Grégoire and Soheil Hajmirbaba. The studio conducts research involving a network of actors from various disciplines with the aim of encouraging exchanges between the arts, sciences and architecture. Alexandra and Axelle wrote Terra Forma: A Book of Speculative Maps (MIT Press, 2022). Alexandra is Doctor in Architecture (University of Manchester, 2022). In collaboration with scientists from the Critical Zone, she develops maps of the earth’s cycles: Gaïa-graphy. Axelle is an architect and doctoral student at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. She develops projects that contribute to renewing the representation of territories.

References

Aït-Touati, Frédérique, Alexandra Arènes, Axelle Grégoire. Terra Forma: A Book of Speculative Maps. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2022.

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Published

2024-04-03

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2023): Situating More-Than-Human Ecologies of Extended Urbanisation

Section

Visual Essay

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Alexandra Arènes, Axelle Grégoire

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