The Territorial City is part of a larger design-research project being undertaken at the The California College of the Arts in collaboration with The Urban Works Agency that is investigating the operationalization of California’s Central Valley. It is no surprise that within the State, the greatest political, economic, and cultural divide manifests itself between the coastal cities and hinterland regions. While these two regions have remained relatively distinct, the construction of the high-speed rail infrastructure will produce a spatial collapse between these two worlds, and create a new world of its own—a territorial city. This hinterland landscape will be witnessing crucial transformations in upcoming years that will affect its ecologies, hydrology, economics, and inhabitants. The goal of this project is to find new methods for sustainably integrating political and economic realities with robust social and environmental ecologies.
- Instructor: Neeraj Bhatia