Companion Spaces
Challenging totalitarian urbanism



'Companion Spaces' is a spatial platform that questions the totalitarian worldview in modern urbanism. This global architectural approach naturalises human dominance over nature, reduces complex non-human interactions to monocultures of utility, and promotes a singular, imposed mindset of how life on Earth should function.
Inspired by Donna Haraway’s Companion Species theory, the intertwined, co-evolving relationships between humans and non-human beings evolve through the fragmented architectures of our modern human-centred world to co-create living shared environments. Just as Haraway challenges the separation between human and non-human animals, 'Companion Spaces' alter the boundaries between the urban and the wild, supporting habitats, movement, and multispecies connection in a shared, relational, and reciprocal environment.
These spaces challenge human exceptionalism, supporting mutual habitats for the benefit of all beings. 'Companion Spaces' encourage interdependence, co-worlding, and rich, beneficial interactions between human and non-human actors. Like George Monbiot’s vision of rewilding, Companion Spaces are not about abandoning civilisation but about enhancing it, "loving not man the less, but Nature more."
Basel, September, 2024
Filippo Vegezzi




