Towards a new blast zone: Washington D.C.'s next-generation hunting forest

Conference lectured at the Symposium "Architectures of fear. Terrorism and the Future of Urbanism in the West",  CCCB,  17-18 May 2007 Using rhetoric rooted in Cold War narratives, municipalities along the Interstate-81 (I-81) corridor in Northern Virginia’s rural...

Theme Park Archipelago: Architectural simulacra and urban warfare

Conference lectured at the Symposium "Architectures of fear. Terrorism and the Future of Urbanism in the West" CCCB 17-18 May 2007 Western military strategy was long premised on the avoidance of urban combat, with air strikes the preferred method of subduing large conurbations.1...

Architectures of securisation in Berlin

Conference lectured at the Symposium "Architectures of fear. Terrorism and the Future of Urbanism in the West" CCCB 17-18 May 2007 Weapons serve for destruction and deletion. In order to protect themselves, humans have developed obstructive blocking mechanisms in order to stand up to...

"Readiness" and its formulas

Conference lectured at the Symposium "Architectures of fear. Terrorism and the Future of Urbanism in the West" CCCB 17-18 May 2007 In the midst of ambulances, police cars and emergency personnel, one man lays motionless upon the hot pavement. His head is swathed in bloody bandages, as...

Vigilant visualities: the watchful politics of the war on terror

Conference lectured at the Symposium "Architectures of fear. Terrorism and the Future of Urbanism in the West" CCCB 17-18 May 2007 It’s the sense of touch. . . . I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into one another just so we can feel something (Haggis and Moresco,...

Automobility and the driving force of warfare: From public safety to national security

Conference lectured at the Symposium "Architectures of fear. Terrorism and the Future of Urbanism in the West" CCCB 17-18 May 2007 “The increasing mobility and destructive potential of modern terrorism has required the United States to rethink and rearrange fundamentally its...

Urban revolution or urban involution? Reflections on fear and political action

Conference lectured at the Symposium "Architectures of fear. Terrorism and the Future of Urbanism in the West" CCCB 17-18 May 2007 More than 30 years ago, Lefebvre published La révolution urbaine (1970 a), which he saw as a “differentialist manifesto” (this is the...

Lines of sight: On the visualisation of unknown features

Fear rules: The expansion of the emipre of the unknown

Conference lectured at the Symposium "Architectures of fear. Terrorism and the Future of Urbanism in the West" CCCB 17-18 May 2007 Since September 11 fear has become an important theme in political discourse. Commentaries frequently draw attention to the significance of public fears....