Abstract

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.

Climate breakdown is ourpresent and pressing reality, necessitating systemic changes that expand architecture's definition, scope, and interests. This volatile context inevitablydisrupts traditional conventions, discourses, and paradigms within theprofession and education. While architecture’s primary role remains theorganisation, control, and redistribution of space and events, it begins withterritorial gestures, enclosures, and the allocation of what was once common.This process, often resulting in a spatial proposition, and disguising undernovel terminology, is rooted in principles of efficiency and productivity. Consequently,space is rarely left untouched or idle, making the idea of leaving it fallowalmost unthinkable in current design practices. Could adopting a 'fallow'mindset help us envision an architecture that transcends traditional buildingsand challenges growth-oriented spatial norms? Fallow thinking advocates thevalue of ‘active rest’ as a method to cultivate a critical awareness towards socio-geographicalflows between the agri-urban practices/acts and the artefacts/infrastructuresthat enable them.

Aligning with emergingperspectives from ecological philosophy, new materialism, and Gaia theory, we argue for new pedagogical agendas that emphasise architectural thinking as entanglementwith social, cultural, and technological principles. Our implementation of suchagendas in education advocates for an expanded approach to architecture as acritical spatial practice with a heightened awareness of our shrinking world'scomplexity and connectivity.

We propose shifting focustowards the interconnectedness of matter, social, and spatio-temporalorganisation, drawing inspiration from Laxton, Nottinghamshire, where medievalEngland’s last remaining open-field farming system is still practised. In Laxton,community-managed fields, with one left fallow annually to allow naturalregeneration, resist industrial farming pressures and contrast starkly with ourprofession's current growth-oriented neoliberal approach. These fields, managedby a Court Leet and jury, embody collective stewardship through preservedconventions, habits, and practices. Soil as a matter and hyperobjecttakes centre stage in our study. The biodiversity-rich Sykes areas, designatedas Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), remain unfarmed, serving asecological sanctuaries. Laxton's habitat, recognising both human andmore-than-human principles, is reflected in existing building typologies,farmsteads, and dovecotes. The domestication of pigeons and their role in thephosphate cycle and soil fertilisation are also central to our discussion onbuilding multispecies resilience across scales.

Laxton's spatio-temporalpractices offer a model for reimagining sustainable futures, requiring profoundshifts in our perceptions of time, causality, control, and cohabitation. Movingbeyond anthropocentric growth models rooted in capital accumulation, we explorehow our built environment can transition toward the symbiocene,supporting multispecies symbiosis, collaboration, and mutuality.

Examining this expandedand relational approach to spatial thinking through the case study of Laxton,in collaboration with Nottinghamshire Building Preservation Trust Ltd and theLaxton Visitor Centre, we employ written and visual storytelling to speculate ontransformative spatial practices and futures aligned with degrowth and fallowthinking. Through five thematic discussions—focusing on inventories, gestures,networks, conventions, and cohabitations—we explore the possibilities andimplications of proposing a statement of interconnectedness for an expandedarchitectural practice.

Keywords: fallow, expanded architecture, interconnectedness, laxton, openfield