The Moscow-based Strelka Institute has announced a new research program geared toward exploring the issues of planetary urbanism, global energy infrastructure, “geotechnology,” and speculative design, among other topics. 

Directed by professor and theorist Benjamin Bratton, the three-year program will be tuition-free and will explore the topics above as part of a multi-disciplinary effort involving both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

The initiative, The Terraforming, seeks to approach the future inhabitation of planet Earth a literal world-building exercise. A website announcing the program explains: "The term 'terraforming' usually refers to transforming the ecosystems of other planets or moons to make them capable of supporting Earth-like life. However, the looming ecological consequences of human activities suggest that in the decades to come we might need to terraform our own planet if it is to remain a viable host for Earth-like life."

A focus of the research initiative includes looking at the vast Russian countryside as a potential site for linking "the mitigation of anthropogenic climate change to the geopolitics of automation." According to the website, "the vast and quickly changing expanse of Russia’s territory is the program’s site condition. From here, it looks out into space and then back down to Earth to orient what “planetarity” should mean."

More information about the program can be found on the Strelka website.