The Mediterranean
In: New geographies 5
Most literature on the Mediterranean regarding architecture and urbanism has focused on the idea of the Mediterranean city and its history, but the spatial aspect also merits attention. This region, at the intersection of three continents, is one of the most important areas on earth culturally, politically, and ecologically. "New Geographies, 5" aims to recast the Mediterranean as a contemporary phenomenon and spatialize its formation as a larger geographic entity in the twenty-first century. Contributors from a variety of disciplines challenge conventional boundaries between cities and hinterlands and dismantle prevailing geographic, spatial, and cultural meanings. "New Geographies, 5" recovers the Mediterranean as a model for global interaction and critically examines how the migration of complex architectural and urban formations, micro-geographies, new infrastructures, and demographic flows revise geopolitical boundaries and actively reshape cities, regions, and hinterlands beyond recognized cultural and geopolitical contours. Moreover, the collected writings aspire to activate critical questions about the formation of regions and to address philosophical, cross-cultural, and interfaith relationships, preservation, cultural identity, trade, and geopolitics all elements that influence the "geographic." Antonio Petrov is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas, San Antonio.
