DIAGNOSE! Interview with
#5 – Matthew Gandy
By: Diogo Mello Jeremias & Paul Strobel
DIAGNOSE! Interview Series
Published on September 23, 2020
Matthew Gandy // Department of Geography, Cambridge University
Matthew Gandy is a Professor of Cultural and Historical Geography at the Department of Geography of Cambridge University. His focus rests on the fields of landscapes, urban nature, and biodiversity as well as infrastructures, urban political ecology and urban metabolism. Professor Gandy’s work strives for a redefinition of urban nature, reflecting on posthumanism and conceptions of agency and it takes into consideration various spaces from particular wastelands to broad urban landscapes. He has conducted research in various parts of the world including Berlin, Mumbai, Lagos, Los Angeles and London, channeling his work into a wide ranging set of written publications as well as other media formats.
Within the interview, we jointly explore the topics of future transformations and ways of approaching the urban through an infrastructural perspective. Furthermore, we talked about the relationship between natural and technical systems in regard to the notion of cyborgization, focussing especially on the cases of water and digital infrastructure. Towards the end of the talk, Professor Gandy states his opinion on the future challenges for the disciplines of spatial planning and the development of the B-B region.
Length: 36:00 min
[00:00:28] BerlinBrandenburg
[00:02:42] Covid-19
[00:04:43] Crban metabolism
[00:07:52] Water Infrastructure
[00:09:00] Infrastructural approach
[00:10:52] Future of water infrastructure
[00:13:01] Urban fragmentation
[00:13:27] Material & imaterial interfaces
[00:15:02] Digitisation
[00:16:05] Digital & material world
[00:17:27] Digital citizenship
[00:18:57] Digitization & urban interaction
[00:20:31] Environmental justice
[00:21:42] Urban palimpsest
[00:23:11] Post-anthropocene landscapes
[00:24:37] Neglected infrastructures
[00:25:44] Falling infrastructures
[00:27:45] Disruption of modernity
[00:28:26] Hidden realm
[00:30:15] Maintenance of infrastructures
[00:31:18] Infrastructures & experts
[00:32:34] Brachen
[00:35:38] Hybridisation
[00:36:40] Planning beyond sites
[00:37:12] Interdisciplinarity
BB2040
[EN] Berlin Brandenburg 2040 was initiated by the Habitat Unit in cooperation with Projekte International and provides an open stage and platform for multiple contributions of departments and students of the Technical University Berlin and beyond. The project is funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation.
[DE] Berlin Brandenburg 2040 wurde initiiert von der Habitat Unit in Kooperation mit Projekte International und bietet eine offene Plattform für Beiträge von Fachgebieten und Studierenden der Technischen Universität Berlin und darüberhinaus. Das Projekt wird von der Robert Bosch Stiftung gefördert.
