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Thinking Through Soil: Wastewater Agriculture in the Mezquital Valley
Winner of the John Brinckerhoff (JB) Jackson Book Prize
To think through soil is to engage with some of the most critical issues of our time. In addition to its agricultural role in feeding eight billion people, soil has become the primary agent of carbon storage in global climate models, and it is crucial for biodiversity, flood control, and freshwater resources. Perhaps no other material is asked to do so much for the human environment, and yet our basic conceptual model of what soil is and how it works remains surprisingly vague.
In cities, soil occupies a blurry category whose boundaries are both empirically uncertain and politically contested. Soil functions as a nexus for environmental processes through which the planet’s most fundamental material transformations occur, but conjuring what it actually is serves as a useful exercise in reframing environmental thought, design thinking, and city and regional planning toward a healthier, more ethical, and more sustainable future.
Through a sustained analysis of the world’s largest wastewater agricultural system, located in the Mexico City–Mezquital hydrological region, Thinking Through Soil imagines what a better environmental future might look like in central Mexico. More broadly, this case study offers a new image of soil that captures its shifting identity, explains its profound importance to rural and urban life, and argues for its capacity to save our planet.
To think through soil is to engage with some of the most critical issues of our time. In addition to its agricultural role in feeding eight billion people, soil has become the primary agent of carbon storage in global climate models, and it is crucial for biodiversity, flood control, and freshwater resources. Perhaps no other material is asked to do so much for the human environment, and yet our basic conceptual model of what soil is and how it works remains surprisingly vague.
In cities, soil occupies a blurry category whose boundaries are both empirically uncertain and politically contested. Soil functions as a nexus for environmental processes through which the planet’s most fundamental material transformations occur, but conjuring what it actually is serves as a useful exercise in reframing environmental thought, design thinking, and city and regional planning toward a healthier, more ethical, and more sustainable future.
Through a sustained analysis of the world’s largest wastewater agricultural system, located in the Mexico City–Mezquital hydrological region, Thinking Through Soil imagines what a better environmental future might look like in central Mexico. More broadly, this case study offers a new image of soil that captures its shifting identity, explains its profound importance to rural and urban life, and argues for its capacity to save our planet.
200 pages, Paperback
Published June 10, 2025
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February 4, 2026
Wonderful book! What is soil science actually? And what is soil science if you are an architectural researcher?? Thinking Through Soil approaches this question from a position of geopolitical interest, while using the thousands of scientific articles on soil and waste water in the Mezquital to support geosocial and spatial analyses. The beginning is a bit slow if you happen to have a PhD in colonial heritage planning focusing on the mid 20th century, as we already know how racist a practice development planning was/is. But as soon as the more soil science elements start filling the book, the read is really exciting. The role of the valley as natural water treatment infrastructure is really well explained! This ability to use the often quite difficult to read natural science papers as support for the social and political planning issues, is perfect - at least for people like me who came to architecture from social science but is lacking a basic knowledge of chemistry. And currently is FASICINATED by everything biochemical, as this is a whole new world slowly opening up to me. Soil science from a position of planning and architecture - of geopolitics and society- is a great new field which seems to be exploding at the moment. This book is a great companion on the way.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review