The Agroecology Design Studio addresses the challenge of transforming agriculture and food culture in the Zurich Metropolitan Area, in response to climate change, to provide local food, to improve biodiversity and to develop new governance systems involving local farmers and citizens. Agroecology plays a crucial role.

Closely connected to selected theoretical positions discussed in the Urban Theory Sessions, this course will support students in writing a 3000-word essay of publication quality, to present their research and frame their design project. Through critical writing exercises, discussions, peer-reviewing, and guest inputs,essays will be produced and published on the MAS online platform.

Building on the previous sessions, we continue the enquiry into 21st-century extended urbanisation, exploring intertwined systems of spatial production; infrastructure, agriculture and wilderness. We critique the binaries of the urban and the rural, the natural and the cultural, to partially decenter urban and human perspectives, and to introduce a foundation for critical theory beyond-the-urban.