Sessions on Territory

Conservation: Objectives and Critique of Practice

Anastasia Dourida, Raquel Jerobon, Prof. Milica Topalović, Jakob Walter

As design is moving past its anthropocentric origins into a more-than-human approach, the need to discuss conservation becomes prominent again. The multilayered interpretations of the word itself, allow for meaningful conversations that can reshape our perception on the notion of conservation. Who has the agency to decide and who bears the responsibility to implement? Whether we focus on natural or cultural landscapes, how does conservation manifest in architectural design? Which narratives motivate a conservation process and which ones are eventually served? Is it still in dialogue with the needs of the beneficiaries, or does it restrict itself in outdated definitions of the term?

This series of talks and lectures explores conservation and its intersections with architecture, territory, land, and sovereignty. We examine conservation as process, ideology, and movement, and how it shapes the ways architecture, planning, and design is conceived and realized. Through conversations with practitioners and researchers from academia, public institutions, and private sectors, we will interrogate how thinking through conservation in its multiplicities—from the scale of objects, plants, animals, materials, buildings and cities, landscapes to intangible things like cultural practices and language offers a critical lens to explore this spectrum.These sessions situate these debates within the present challenges of neoliberal conservation efforts, privatization interests, shifting global markets, and political dynamics. By bringing together voices from diverse contexts and practices, we aim to advance nuanced discussions on the entanglement of spatial practice with conservation and its futures.