Against wastelanding: distributed design at the pace of soil in the Conca de Barberà

Abstract

This paper proposes a methodology for designers to work in the extensive yet marginal landscapes that are produced as part of the process of agricultural intensification. The distributed design approach, which focuses on enriching the existing bioinfrastructure of the soil, emerged out an ongoing research project in the Conca de Barberà, Spain. The project involves managing an interconnected series of currently unproductive on unmaintained fields through the rotational grazing of horses, with the hypothesis that the systematic grazing regime will catalyse soil biological activity. By attending to the soil infrastructure, the project necessarily developed a unique design approach. Management decisions became design problems and design work took on something of the call and response of management. Though it was shaped by the specific constraints and opportunities of the research project, the methodology is applicable to a wide variety of design projects in extensive landscapes with limited resources.