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Relational Urbanism
A theory developed by Fernando Luiz Lara, Professor of Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, as an extension of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s Amerindian Perspectivism. Lara introduced Relational Urbanism in his 2024 book Spatial Theories for the Americas: Counterweights to Five Centuries of Eurocentrism. This new theory critiqued Western Cartesianism by emphasizing the interconnectedness between indigenous cultures and nature in Latin America, advocating for the importance of relational knowledge as well as respect between humans and nature in design and architecture. The theory is structured around three key categories: Humanized Nature (rejecting separation between humans and nature, instead implying a spectrum), Materiality (humanizing nature and materials…
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Autopoiesis
Autopoiesis, a term coined by Chilean biologists and philosophers Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela in the 1970s, refers to the self-generating and self-sustaining nature of living systems, emphasizing how organisms continuously reproduce and maintain themselves through internal processes. The term, derived from the Greek words auto (self) and poiesis (creation or production), signifies the ability of a system to define and regulate itself independently. In decolonial and design theory, thinkers like Arturo Escobar extend this concept to social and cultural systems, particularly in relation to autonomous design and communal world-making. For instance, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities resisting extractive economies and globalized development models are practicing autopoiesis by maintaining their own…
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Hubris of Zero Degrees
The Hubris of Zero Degrees is a popular concept in decolonial theory, elaborated by thinkers such as Walter Mignolo and Santiago Castro-Gómez, to describe the illusion of objectivity and neutrality in Western knowledge production. It refers to the assumption that modern European science, philosophy, and historiography represent a universal, detached, and neutral perspective, rather than a historically and geopolitically situated way of knowing. The Hubris of Zero Degrees is foundational to the geopolitics of knowledge, as it reveals how power structures determine what is considered legitimate knowledge. This concept is crucial for understanding epistemic coloniality, as it exposes how Western academia continues to privilege European frameworks while dismissing other ways…
