Three Soil-Grounded Perspectives on Berlin

Across rural and urban ecosystems, soils form a thin, fragile, and dynamic membrane in which the geosphere and the hydrosphere meet the biosphere and the atmosphere. They filter water, cool surfaces and air, act as carbon sinks, produce food, support biodiversity, and contain contaminants. Soils are therefore not a backdrop to urban life but a precondition for the habitability of the territories we inhabit. This is all the more evident in the face of climate change and other environmental pressures, which place the forms, techniques, and ways of life of contemporary cities under severe strain.