SAID TO CONTAIN: Session at ETH Zurich

What is the ocean as a territory? Once imagined as a boundless space, largely untouched by human activity, are oceans still a common horizon bringing together the cities and peoples along their shores? Can the open nature of the sea resist the transformative forces of the carved and conflicted earthly masses it is enclosing? Is the ocean space shaped by the strategic control of resources and trade routes? What is the role of the architects in investigating, describing and visualising the urban dynamic of the ocean space? Can ocean territories be designed?

Taking different perspectives, from history, to activism, geopolitics, and design, travellers who have been crossing the global ocean following refugee migrations, onboard container ships and along ancient maritime routes, contribute elements for an urban portrait of ocean territories.

Travellers is a series of lectures and conversations about ways of perceiving, studying and portraying urban territories. Each of the guest speakers is a traveler—a person who places the direct observation and experience of urban landscapes in the core of their practice.