As part of the course RESIDENTIAL PRACTICES: The Monster of Karla, on Monday, May 12th at 14:30, we are delighted to host a guest lecture by Alexandra Arènes, titled "Terra Forma. Composing speculative mappings". The lecture will take place online via Teams.

In her talk, Alexandra Arènes will revisit the issues raised in the book Terra Forma and present the seven speculative mapping models it proposes, with a focus on the first three: soil, life points, and living landscapes. These models have inspired deeper ethno-cartographic inquiries, and the lecture will demonstrate how to shift from conventional cartographic references to alternative mappings rooted in the specific challenges of each landscape. Through examples drawn from fieldwork, she will show how the composition of these maps becomes possible by engaging directly with the agencies that inhabit the Earth.

Bio:
Alexandra Arènes is a graduate architect (2009) and holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Manchester (2022). Her research and practice focus on understanding and representing landscapes in the context of climate change. She works with S.O.C (Société d'Objets Cartographiques) and Shaā, a studio for architecture and urbanism. Shaā designed an installation for the exhibition Critical Zones: Observatories for Earthly Politics at the ZKM museum in Karlsruhe, curated by Bruno Latour. Arènes is co-author of Terra Forma, a book of speculative maps published by MIT (2022). Her new book, Gaïagraphie. Carnet d’exploration de la zone critique (B42, 2025), explores fieldwork in the Earth’s critical zone and presents a collaboration with Earth scientists at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP). More of her work can be found at gaiagraphie.com and s-o-c.fr.