Beneath the Pavement

Catherine Fennell, Energy and sustainability, Essay, expanding design practices, Low Density, Senseable Technologies, Soil Lab, Technology and fabrication.

Chicago, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Earth, Industrialization, Inequality, Inhabiting Landscape, Racism, Real Estate, Soil, Speculation, Vacancy, Vernacular architecture.

In early 2019 I overheard an unexpected conversation between two middle-aged men—unexpected because it involved a landscape far from the one unrolling right before us. Their badges told me their names, employers and destination that morning: they were soil scientists, both on their way to an annual professional meeting being held that year in San Diego. As the Pacific Ocean took shape beyond the bus windows, they began to trade remarks about land use. One noted that California’s southern coast had never really been an ideal place for large-scale agriculture. Not enough fresh water, he observed, too sandy. Given that, he continued, the tangle of tourist hotels and entertainment venues flashing by made sense. “It’s not like this is Chicago,” his companion chuckled, “all that prairie” “paved over” in “concrete and asphalt.” Beneath the pavement, the prairie.