Horizontality and its project

Horizontality and its project.
Pluralizing urbanization perspectives.

Invited lecturers: Charles Waldheim, Tommaso Pietropolli

 

Ten years ago, the Laboratory of Urbanism at EPFL proposed to reflect on the notion of horizontality as a critical lens through which to engage urban theory and practice. Since then, this concept has been substantially enriched, both critically and analytically, through theoretical lineages developed in Europe and beyond.
This seminar proposes to revisit horizontality not as a closed paradigm or a purely formal principle, but as a mode of critical engagement with the socio- political, ecological, and economic processes of urbanization. Horizontality is approached simultaneously as a historical, ideological, conceptual and political question - one that intersects with issues of territorial redistribution, accessibility, solidarity, and spatial justice under conditions of deep socio-ecological transformation within generalized urbanization. Neither reducible to top-down nor bottom-up models, horizontality invites reflection on spatial organization, territorial governance, and the socio-political conflicts that shape contemporary urbanization.
Understood as a spatial, ecological, governance-related, ethical, and political principle, horizontality provides a framework through which territories are organized, contested, and transformed. Rather than reiterating a critique of vertical power structures or growth-oriented urbanization, the seminar seeks to pluralize perspectives on horizontality as an open concept - one capable of generating new rationalities and spatial imaginaries in support of future design based and socio-political agendas.
The discussion asks what has become of the modern project of horizontality: where it has been interrupted, diluted, re-interpreted or re-invested; what alternative ideas and conditions for horizontality have been raised; where it persists in latent, marginal forms; and whether it can still offer meaningful tools for thinking and practicing a project of coexistence, emancipation and redistribution today.
Ultimately, the seminar positions horizontality not as a resolved concept, but as an open question - one that invites debate, reappropriation, and experimentation in response to the urgent challenges of a just socio-ecological transition.

 

1 - Concept and theory of horizontality
This session proposes a conceptual and theoretical reflection on the notion of horizontality. It aims to clarify its meanings, genealogies, and uses across philosophy, design and the social sciences, while critically examining its relevance in contemporary debates.
Particular attention is given to decentered and non-hierarchical organizational models - such as "centerless" or distributed forms of organization - ”as well as to emerging perspectives that challenge anthropocentric frameworks.
The session also interrogates horizontality in relation to its conceptual counterpart, verticality, exploring how power, governance, and political structures are reconfigured through these spatial and organizational imaginaries.
Finally, it engages with critical traditions of modernity, questioning how horizontality has been theorized, mobilized, and contested within broader critiques of modern social and spatial orders.

2 - An Interrupted Modern Project of horizontality?
This axis proposes a critical historical reflection that examines horizontality as a fundamental component of the modern project, focusing on its partial abandonment, fragmentation, and contemporary reactivation only partial, under new weaker conditions. It interrogates its spatial heritage, the political, institutional, and territorial frameworks that initially enabled its emergence, as well as those that contributed to its decline. Particular attention is given to the tensions between horizontal ideals and dominant spatial, economic, and governance regimes, which have often limited their translation into durable and sustained practices. This perspective engages with visions that have become obsolete - such as the political project of the welfare state or the spatial and infrastructural ambition of generalized accessibility - while, conversely, reconsidering trajectories once thought exhausted. Notably, it addresses the resurgence of the American sprawl urban model, long presumed to be in decline, yet re-emerging in contemporary forms.

3 - Pluralizing urbanization perspectives: What path lays ahead?
This track explores not only a shifting gaze on horizontality, but also alternative positionalities. It seeks to question whose knowledge, practices, and territorial rationalities have been excluded from dominant narratives of urbanization, and how their inclusion might contribute to reshaping the political project of horizontality in the present and the future.Particular attention is given to contemporary forms of resistance and alternative experiences that are actively reconfiguring horizontality today, opening up new possibilities for its transformation. This final axis is forward-looking, reflecting on current conditions, as well as their possibilities and limits in light of the challenges of our time. It asks how horizontality might be reactivated through emerging forms such as collective governance, situated practices, and alternative spatial imaginaries.

 

Participants will be asked to follow and interact in round table and to produce a critical written piece based on there own interested and reseaches with relation to the seminar theme.