Letter from the soils we have designed with : WestminsterResearch

Creators	Guibert, E.
Description	Reading of the Letter from the soils we have designed with, presented at the Monsoon [and other] Ground symposium, 22.03.2019, organised by the Monsoon Assemblages research project. In my practice and recently completed PhD, I have been investigating possible relationships between humans and their ecosystems that nurture the resilience of both, with a specific focus on plant communities. The methodology is a reflective process integrated within the practice of built and grown architectures. It defined an ecological practice as a secular form of architectural animism that conceives of places as a beings with agency, that we garden with. Soils, although not in the foreground, were regularly mentioned for the definition of a site’s propensity through defining the levels of nutrients and water, and structural capacity... This proposal is to reflect on a selection of the same case studies but this time from the point of view of soils. Soils will be analysed as characters, persons, connecting the life and rhythms of humans, as well as other animals and plants, to geological and climatic temporalities. Of particular interest is how we can transfer to the future the varied forms of heritage embedded in the rituals of soil care, the biological (genetic), the ecological, the cultural. Simultaneously, the lens of “new materialism” will be applied on this practice. The fields previously connected in the research were other architectural and art practices, ecology, landscape conservation, systems theory, as well as Taoist and Zen philosophies. The form of this reflection will be a weave of multiple narratives – some literary, a letter, some theoretical – within which artefacts are embedded. It is conceived as much as a performance as an academic piece of writing.
Year	22 Mar 2019
Web address (URL)	https://www.ericguibert.com/growing/2019/3/29/a-letter-from-the-soils-we-have-designed-with

Related outputs

The Ontopolity of Feral Landscapes: An anthropology of tools negotiating relationships between other-than- human and human collectives
Eric Guibert 2026. Forthcoming. The Ontopolity of Feral Landscapes: An anthropology of tools negotiating relationships between other-than- human and human collectives. in: Athique, A., Goodwin, D. and Wall, E. (ed.) Collective Landscape Futures Routledge.

A Carrier Bag of Regenerative Design Scores: Design Methods and Media for Regenerative Architecture
Guibert, E., McLean, W., Powis, A. and Irwin, B. Guibert, E. (ed.) 2025. A Carrier Bag of Regenerative Design Scores: Design Methods and Media for Regenerative Architecture. A University of Westminster, School of Architecture + Cities Publication.

Co-creating with Feral Landscapes: Delineating a useful definition and ontology of (re)wilding for the architectural fields
Guibert, E. 2025. Co-creating with Feral Landscapes: Delineating a useful definition and ontology of (re)wilding for the architectural fields. in: Krag, M., Meeres, S. and Stringer, B. (ed.) Rescaling the Rural ORO Editions/AR+D (Applied Research + Design Publishing).

Design Practices
Mr Wilfred Achille, Ayuso, A., Batty, S., Boulanger, A., Cascone, P., Durelle, K., Dr Ana Gatóo, Girardin, F., Golzari, N., Guibert, E., Kramer, M., Maragiannis, A., McLean, W., Nieva Mesas, G., Pollock, B., Zaide, P., Zhang, J., Sharif, Y., Silver, P., Urna Sodnomjamts, Tankard, J., Thwaites, A., Watson, V.A. and Wilkinson, C. Watson, V.A., McLean, W. and Urna Sodnomjamts (ed.) 2024. Design Practices. University of Westminster DPRG Publications.

Feral Landscape Tools - Gardening, knowledge, and design tools for co-creating with wildness
Guibert, E. 2023. Feral Landscape Tools - Gardening, knowledge, and design tools for co-creating with wildness. Collective Landscape Futures. University of Greenwich 18 - 19 May 2023

Feral Systemic Design: (re)wilding methods and methodology for systemic architectural design
Guibert, E. 2022. Feral Systemic Design: (re)wilding methods and methodology for systemic architectural design. RSD11 – Relating Systems Thinking and Design. University of Brighton 13 - 16 Oct 2022 RSDX – Systemic Design Association.

The fictional soils of a ‘sustainable’ Anthropocene: A new materialist story of the soils of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Guibert, Eric and Tostevin, Alec 2022. The fictional soils of a ‘sustainable’ Anthropocene: A new materialist story of the soils of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Journal of Landscape Architecture. 17 (2), pp. 76-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2022.2156104

Tower Flat
Guibert, E. 2021. Tower Flat.

On the Usefulness of Modern Animism: Co-Creating Architecture with Soils as Ontopolitical Practice
Guibert, E. 2021. On the Usefulness of Modern Animism: Co-Creating Architecture with Soils as Ontopolitical Practice. GeoHumanities. 7 (1), pp. 176-197. https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566x.2021.1904785

Rituals of Architecture: Using Ecosystems as Co-Designers
Guibert, E. 2020. Rituals of Architecture: Using Ecosystems as Co-Designers.

Letter from the soils I have designed with
Guibert, E. 2020. Letter from the soils I have designed with. in: Bremner, L. and Cook, J. (ed.) Monsoon [+ other] Grounds London Monsoon Assemblages. pp. 39-50

Landscape Gestures
Guibert, E. 2019. Landscape Gestures.

Emergent meadow watercolours
Guibert, E. 2019. Emergent meadow watercolours.

The Literacy Library
Guibert, E. 2018. The Literacy Library.

Setting and Tweaking: the architect as improvisatory choreographer of ecologies
Guibert, E. 2018. Setting and Tweaking: the architect as improvisatory choreographer of ecologies. CA2RE Conference. Ghent 07 - 09 Apr 2017 KU Leuven.

The Gardener Architect: designing with the emergent natures of places
Guibert, E. 2017. The Gardener Architect: designing with the emergent natures of places. PhD thesis

ADAPT-r exhibition in London (AMBIKA P3)
Guibert, E. 2016. ADAPT-r exhibition in London (AMBIKA P3).

Timeframework, diversity and etiquette: Fostering collective Knowledge creation in conferences through design and practice
Guibert, E. 2015. Timeframework, diversity and etiquette: Fostering collective Knowledge creation in conferences through design and practice. Constructivist Foundations. 11 (1), pp. 108-110.

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Letter from the soils we have designed with

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