Keller Easterling, an American architect and urban theorist, advances a critical vision of contemporary urbanism by conceptualizing infrastructure as a medium rather than a neutral support system, emphasizing its capacity to operate as an invisible matrix of rules that organize territory beyond iconic architecture, this concept is central to her seminal book Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space where she argues that spatial infrastructures—such as special economic zones, fiber-optic networks, and logistical systems—act as active agents shaping political and economic outcomes without formal policy, highlighting how power increasingly resides in spatial software that programs urban environments through protocols rather than laws, in her earlier work Organization Space she applies network theory to investigate the dispersed and relational nature of American suburbs, reframing architecture not as isolated objects but as patterns of behavior embedded in systems, her participation in Ai Weiwei’s Ordos 100 project exemplifies this approach, as she designed a speculative house for Inner Mongolia that questioned traditional domestic forms while implicitly addressing issues of global capital and speculative urbanism, Easterling’s work consistently expands the role of the architect beyond formal composition to that of a strategist of infrastructure, operating within the gray zones where space, regulation, and economics converge, ultimately she reveals that infrastructure is not passive but politically charged, and that engaging with it critically is essential to understanding and intervening in the contemporary built environment.
Keller Easterling, infrastructure space, extrastatecraft, architecture theory, spatial politics, network urbanism, American suburbs, Ordos 100, urban strategy, invisible systems
