Academic Paper
Authors: Cansu Curgen-Gurpinar (Loughborough University) , Cagri Sanliturk (Loughborough University) , Robert Schmidt III (Loughborough University)
Climate breakdown represents not merely an environmental crisis but a fundamental rupture in our relationship with planetary systems, demanding that we reconceptualise our professional roles and practices, their scopes and scales, within this entangled web of existence. Inspired by the agricultural act of letting land lie fallow to recover and regenerate, this article reframes spatial thinking through fallowness and shared ecological time, moving beyond anthropocentric growth models rooted in capital accumulation to prioritise stewardship over ownership, depth over speed, and care over exploitation.
Aligning with Bruno Latour’s ecological philosophy, we turn to the interconnectedness of matter, particularly soil, drawing on the social and spatial organisation of Laxton, Nottinghamshire, where one of medieval England’s last remaining open field farming system is still practised. Community-managed fields, with one left fallow annually, resist industrial farming pressures and contrast starkly with neoliberal growth imperatives. Governed by a Court Leet and jury, these fields embody collective ecological stewardship. The biodiversity-rich sykes areas, designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, serve as ecological sanctuaries, while Laxton’s farmsteads and nearby dovecotes exemplify architecture designed explicitly for non-human inhabitants, offering historical precedents for multispecies spatial thinking.
Fallow thinking values active rest as a method for cultivating awareness of soil, landscape, and community, demanding responsibility across the full temporal spectrum of earthwork practice. Through these principles, we develop the Fallow Thinking Companion, a design approach that expands architecture's temporal and material responsibilities by proposing a new stage to the RIBA Plan of Work: Stage ∞, offering a model for reimagining sustainable futures through shifts in our understanding of time, causality, control, and cohabitation.
Keywords: fallow, expanded architecture, interconnectedness, laxton, openfield
How to Cite: Curgen-Gurpinar, C. , Sanliturk, C. & Schmidt III, R. (2026) “Staying with Fallows: An Eco-centric Companion for Spatial Thinking”, field. 11(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.62471/field.197
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