Carbon

Petroleum has both lain the structure for our society and carries with it the potential to destroy it. Architectural historian Ateya Khorakiwala examines the lasting social and political effects of bitumen, a carbon-based biproduct of petroleum distillation, in 1960s India. In turn, anthropologist Gökçe Günel takes up the concerns of the post-industrial world, examining the Masdar City project in Abu Dhabi, an urban zone that seeks to create a renewable and clean infrastructure.