Border-Land-Scapes

Against the backdrop of war, border closures, and growing uncertainty, this book asks a pressing question: What happens to landscapes when defense becomes a defining force?

Borders, once conceived as abstract lines on maps, are increasingly taking material form in the landscape through fences, surveillance systems, watchtowers, barriers, and expanding military infrastructure. Their presence reshapes places, communities, and the very meaning of belonging.

From Latvia’s fortified eastern border to the devastated ecosystems of Lebanon, from sites of protest in Tbilisi to gated urban enclaves across Latin America, contributions by architects, researchers, and artists trace how militarization transforms not only territories but also everyday life, perception, and our relationship to space. They reveal how borders are constructed, experienced, and contested, while asking what futures these Border-Land-Scapes might make possible.

Bringing together perspectives from architecture, geopolitics, and landscape studies, the book examines the spatial consequences of conflict and the changing role of borders in the twenty-first century. Rather than treating landscapes as passive settings, it understands them as active records of political decisions, collective anxieties, and evolving notions of security. In doing so, Border-Land-Scapes offers a critical lens through which to understand the territorial realities of an increasingly fragmented world.

With contributions by Sven Biscop, Joel Winsnes, Caterina Viguera, Maris Andžăns, Shereen Doummar Greggio, Elias Tamer, Edouard Souhaid, Liene Jākobsone, Manten Devriendt, Theo Deutinger, Max Zolkwer, Yevheniia Berchul, Nabi Agzamov, Vanessa Miriam Carlow, Pieter Uyttenhove, Tinatin Gurgenidze, Natalia Nebieridze, Maarten Van Den Driessche, Michiel De Cleene, Markus Lähteenmäki