Granularity In Action
An attempt of reconceptualisation to sustain the rural
re(s)public in an interdisciplinary research collective. As a group we rethink the narratives of space and its related disciplines through critical design, fine arts and architecture. We aim at bridging disciplines and looking beyond the scission of academia, business and art. We believe that in the intersection of these worlds lays the inspiration and the creation of value. We believe in conversation, in learning through making, and we believe in the future. Our work offers space for reflection on art and creative practice through research.
Unveiling the narratives, trusting the collective imagination
The research explores the overlapping areas of three main spectrums: social anthropology, geographies, and economy. In particular, it is looking at the specific case of the rural landscape in Morocco, investigating the urgent question of its sustainability, not only from a territory perspective, but more importantly from a social, environmental and economic one. In fact, in an increasingly urbanised world, when all the future forecasts predict that more than two third of the world’s population will be living in an urban area by 2050, asking how the rural can be preserved becomes crucial.
In thereof idea of preservation lies the imagination around the landscape, and the wonders of its role in the future. In fact, as one can read in Letters to a young farmer, “The ruling ideas of our present national or international economy are competition, consumption, globalism, corporate profitability, mechanical efficiency, technological change, upward mobility […]. We, on the contrary, must think again of reverence, humility, affection, familiarity, neighbourliness, cooperation, thrift, appropriateness, local loyalty. These terms return us to the best of our heritage.” One can observe the infusion of a more intangible and even emotional glossary of terms which the author link to the inherited values. How can we reintroduce these words in the contemporary, future-looking world?
The question then becomes how can we apprehend the narratives to trigger a design intervention that would leverage the socio-economic capabilities of the rural ? This thesis addresses this interrogation by focusing on the narratives, exploring how they create a no-boundaries and open space between urban and rural, enabling both to thrive.
As an outcome of this investigation, and through an ethnographic research method, the research proposes a framework. The framework is meant to help urban and local territories define the specific and local sets of parameters that create a no-boundary landscape.
To find out more about the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural work that we do at re(s)public collective visit our website under respubliccollective.com. See our projects or get to know our members. We also send out a newsletter on a regural base. You can sign up for it here.
Martha Hodgkins. (2017). Letters to a young farmer. Princeton Architectural Press.
