ARCHITECTS OFFICE Forest Gens: Revealing Human-Nature Interrelations in Amazonia

By ARCHITECTS OFFICE and Poles Studio

The project utilizes state-of-the-art mapping techniques in the Amazonian context to make visible the multiple layers composing the region. From the footprint of present societies to centuries-old territorial manipulation, the mapping presents the Amazon as a complex, human-shaped landscape rather than a homogeneous, pristine forest.

The work depicts the Amazonian territory at multiple scales, highlighting how the interplay between geography and past and present human intervention allows one to develop hypotheses about the region’s occupation. A focus on recent data collected through remotely sensed imagery in Brazil’s Acre state and

Bolivia’s Llanos de Mojos region exposes the archaeological remains of ancient forms of tropical lowdensity urbanism. Likewise, a system of interconnected sites of archaeological dark earths (ADE)— organic remnants of human occupation used to assess the size and duration of past settlements—suggests the prolonged human manipulation of the Amazonian environment.

Altogether, the visualizations contribute to build awareness of the imprints our modes of relating to that landscape have had on the ground over an extended historical period, profoundly altering the limits between nature and society in that environment. Hopefully, the work will contribute to a growing conversation on how our societies can reimagine the nexus between urbanization and the preservation of nature, and envision radically new, less anthropocentric futures for the Amazon.