Distributing destruction

Abstract

Alongside a growing population and expanding built environment, the construction of large-scale infrastructures, mostly related to transportation, has radically altered Lahore’s landscape. This paper explores how waste in the form of debris, smog and dust is produced and proliferates throughout the process of construction. In drawing upon the notion of atmospheric attunements, this paper argues that waste not only takes different forms, but also comes to be distributed at distinct scales. I first discuss the major infrastructure projects that have been built across Lahore in the past few decades in order to emphasise the ways in which destruction is interwoven throughout the construction process. I then turn to examine how debris as destroyed material that lacks value circulates through market exchange, allowing it to be remade into something of value once again. Finally, I draw upon both spectacular and mundane events to pursue how smog and dust resulting from construction create linkages across bodies, spaces and atmospheres, which refract inequalities within the city. Whether as debris, smog or dust, the question of distributing destruction is brought to the fore throughout the building processes: what material forms does destruction take and how are they distributed across bodies, spaces and atmospheres?