DocTalks is a series dedicated to ongoing investigations by doctoral, postdoctoral, or early-career researchers into the expansive entanglement of architecture and the natural environment. These sessions are meant to create an intercollegiate cohort of scholars who workshop writing, share research findings, and experiment with methodological tools while engaging with the vision and investigations of the Ambasz Institute.
These Doc Talk sessions are intended for scholars or architecture history and theory, but scholars in related fields and the general public are welcome to attend.
Salt and Land
Speaker
Yosuke Nakatomo, ETH Zurich
This thesis investigates the modernization of the salt industry in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea region, focusing on the concept of “metabolic rift” derived from Marx’s critique of capitalist agriculture. It examines how salt, a vital resource historically embedded in Japan's maritime culture, has shaped the evolving relationship between land and society, from traditional methods of production to contemporary industrial processes. The research traces the historical evolution of salt production, beginning with the premodern tidal influx method, which relied on natural environmental conditions and fostered reciprocal trade between coastal and inland communities. This labor-intensive practice tied salt production deeply to the rhythms of nature and established salt as an economic and cultural link between regions. However, the introduction of mechanized methods, such as the gravity flow and ion-exchange membrane processes in the 20th century, marked a shift towards greater efficiency and standardization. These technological advancements, driven largely by government monopolization and the demands of global markets, transformed the salt industry from a locally integrated system into an industrialized, globalized process.
The thesis argues that this shift toward industrial efficiency and reliance on imported salt represents a broader environmental and cultural estrangement, or “metabolic rift,” disconnecting local communities from the land and sea. The loss of traditional salt fields signifies not only an economic shift but also the erosion of cultural practices and environmental stewardship linked to Japan’s coastal landscapes. Ultimately, the thesis advocates for a comprehensive reevaluation of Japan's coastal history, which has often been marginalized in favor of prevailing agricultural narratives. By positioning salt as a critical lens for examining the country’s environmental and economic transformations, it emphasizes the need to restore Japan’s maritime heritage as an essential component of understanding the nation’s cultural landscape.
Yosuke Nakamoto is a practicing architect and a researcher based in Zürich. He teaches design with Studio Caruso at ETH Zürich’s Department of Architecture, where he also conducts research in the MAS program at gta. Originally from Tokyo, he studies at TU Wien, Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio, and ETH Zürich. He has practiced working for Adolf Krischanitz in Vienna, EMI Architekten in Zürich, and Staufer & Hasler Architekten in Frauenfeld. He was a research fellow at the Canada Centre for Architecture in Montreal in the summer of 2024. His research revolves around the cross-cultural exchange of ideas in a range of topics such as folkloric traces in modern society and the consequence of value shifts projected onto the landscape. Recent conference participations include SUDHT at TU Delft, Drawing the Urban at USI Mendrisio, and EAHN at NTU Athens.
Respondent
TBA
The Desagüe Debates: Water and Drainage in Enlightenment Mexico
Speaker
Rebecca Yuste, Columbia University
This paper examines the role that the desagüe, or drainage system, played in the modification of the environmental conditions of the Valley of Mexico in the late Enlightenment. Begun in the 16th century, the desagüe was designed to protect Mexico City from the seasonal floods of Lake Texcoco. Drainage continued for the following 200 years, using technologies and procedures learned in mining and extraction projects elsewhere in Mexico to uncover useful, productive, arid land. By the end of the 18th century, however, the effects of systematically eliminating water from the valley began to emerge. Creole scientists, in particular Jos. Antonio de Alzate (1737–1799), became increasingly concerned with the climatic effects of this changing environment. They observed and wrote about the atmosphere, weather patterns, flora and fauna, and the cultural and societal changes suffered by the indios who lived in surrounding villages. These scientists, many of whom worked in opposition to the Bourbon crown, articulated a deep skepticism towards these neo-mercantilist imperial projects, instead proposing a more conservation-minded approach to land and water management. The desagüe, then, becomes an early site to think about the relationship between human activity and climate change. It offers a case study in the longue-durée of environmental and ecological history. As the work of these creole scientists demonstrates, an ecological dissent emerged alongside techniques of land control and disruption. Calling into question the need to so drastically change the natural world, these scientists were ultimately silenced, as the imperial reformist projects marched forward in the name of progress, eventually draining the lake completely and forever altering the environmental identity of the valley.
Rebecca Yuste is a PhD candidate in art history and archaeology at Columbia University, completing a dissertation on the design of nature in Enlightenment Mexico. Her research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, and the Hispanic Society of America. Rebecca holds and AB magna cum laude in art and archaeology from Princeton University, where she won the Frederick Barnard White Prize in Architecture.
Respondent
TBA
This event was made possible through a generous gift from Emilio Ambasz. The Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment is a platform for fostering dialogue, promoting conversation, and facilitating research about the relationship between the built and natural environment, with the aim of making the interaction between architecture and ecology visible and accessible to the wider public while highlighting the urgent need for an ecological recalibration.