Snorkelling in Soil: Architectural Care for the Ground

Soil is foundational to design, but architecture students often represent and think of soil as abstraction, or for extraction. Snorkelling in Soil is a community science project, embedded in a year-long Master of Architecture (MArch) Design Studio “Co-Dreaming Climates”, that aims to enhance ecological literacy. Convening a multispecies soil community, we conducted microbiological and environmental chemistry research in the field and lab. We envisaged that a hands-on approach and participation in growing microbes from soil would sensitise them to it as a living thing, impacted by the choices of humans. We found significant shifts in ecological knowledge, design tools and methods and appreciation of professional responsibilities.