Activities
Critical Earth works through four interconnected activities.
Research and design. We develop projects that combine critical territorial analysis with spatial design, examining how landscapes are produced, transformed, and inhabited across scales.
Situated practice and implementation. We engage in long-term collaborations with communities, local actors, and public institutions, using living labs and pilot projects to test and demonstrate responses on the ground.
Strategic consultation. We advise public institutions, cooperatives, and civil society organisations on land transition, climate adaptation, and regenerative practice, translating research into actionable strategies.
Knowledge production and exchange. We share our work through publications, events, exhibitions, and digital media, and we build networks that connect research with practice and expertise with situated experience.
Approach
1. Land as a socio-ecological system
We understand land as a living system in which ecological processes, livelihoods, cultures, and political economies are inseparably entangled. This understanding shapes how we frame problems and which responses we consider meaningful.
2. Regeneration as a guiding principle
We support and study practices that regenerate ecosystems and social fabrics: agroecology, agroforestry, ecological restoration, commoning, and other situated forms of stewardship. We ask how such practices can become the norm, and which institutional, economic, and spatial conditions this requires.
3. Justice as a design horizon
Climate adaptation and ecological transition are political processes as much as technical ones. Who bears the costs, who holds decision-making power, and whose knowledge counts are questions we address from the moment a problem is defined.
4. Critical inquiry and situated practice
Critical analysis informs how we act, and engagement with specific places, communities, and partners tests and refines our analysis. Through living labs and long-term field engagements, research, design, and implementation proceed together as a continuous exchange.
5. Collaboration across knowledge communities and territories
The challenges we address exceed any single discipline, sector, or settlement type. We build lasting working relationships among researchers, designers, farmers, cooperatives, public institutions, and civil society, across cities, countrysides, and the territories that connect them.
Expertise
Our team brings together expertise in four areas.
Territorial Analysis and Transcalar Design
We analyse how territories are produced and transformed by processes operating across scales, from land-use change and infrastructure development to extractive economies and global commodity flows. Building on critical urban and regional theory, we examine urban–rural continuums, hydro-social landscapes, and the Earth-system dynamics that increasingly shape territorial change. Analysis is coupled with design: research-by-design, mapping, and spatial imaginaries allow us to explore alternative territorial configurations at the scales of the site, the landscape, the region, and the planet.
- Critical territorial analysis and regional development
- Land-use dynamics, extractive economies, and urban–rural continuums
- Earth systems and environmental transformation
- Water, territory, and hydro-social landscapes
- Territorial, landscape, and urban design across scales
- Research-by-design and spatial imaginaries
- Geospatial analysis, modelling, and geovisualisation
Climate Adaptation, Infrastructure, and Governance
Climate adaptation involves decisions taken under deep uncertainty, over long time horizons, and across multiple jurisdictions. We develop adaptation strategies and spatial frameworks for vulnerable landscapes that integrate infrastructure, ecology, and governance. Our work addresses how public agencies, institutions, and communities can coordinate across levels of government and sectors, and how partnerships among diverse actors can be structured to remain accountable and durable over time.
- Climate adaptation and design under deep uncertainty
- Infrastructure, ecology, and multi-level governance
- Institutional design and multi-stakeholder partnerships
- Strategic consultation for public institutions and civil society
Regenerative Land Systems and Agroforestry
We design and implement agroforestry and agroecological systems with farmers and cooperatives, integrating agronomy, silviculture, and ecology into systems adapted to topography, farm size, and local species. Our work covers the full implementation cycle, from spatial design and seedling supply to planting, training, adaptive management, and monitoring. Since regeneration must also sustain livelihoods, we analyse the economic viability of land transitions and develop financing models that make them durable, with attention to how benefits are shared among producers, cooperatives, and partners.
- Agroforestry and agroecological system design
- Implementation, training, and monitoring on the ground
- Long-term partnerships with farmers and cooperatives
- Bioeconomies and nature-based value chains
- Economic viability and financing of land transitions
Socio-ecological Transitions, Justice, and Knowledge
Transitions toward sustainability redistribute resources, risks, and power. Drawing on political ecology, environmental justice, and the environmental humanities, we examine who benefits from land and climate transitions and who bears their costs, and how community and Indigenous knowledges can shape their direction. We systematise field experience and research into methods and protocols that partners can apply and verify, and we contribute to scholarly and public debate through academic publications, conferences, exhibitions, and events.
- Socio-ecological transitions, political ecology, and environmental justice
- Environmental humanities, community and Indigenous knowledge
- Methodological systematisation and protocol development
- Academic research, publication, and public engagement