000 / 07 List of CaseStudies

The research examines a series of sites where global production systems and urban regulatory frameworks have reshaped the territory. Through cartographic analysis and spatial mapping, these case studies reveal how landscapes such as quarries, industrial complexes, and incentive-generated public spaces become contemporary “drosscapes” — spatial residues that record the transformations of global production systems and urban development.

001 / 07 BONUS LINES

Geography of Negotiated Publicness , NYC

61 × 46 x 41 cm

© Marta Morato
New York City

This project examines Broadway as an urban section where the production of public space emerges from the negotiation between regulatory frameworks and private development. Since the introduction of incentive zoning in New York, additional building capacity has often been granted in exchange for publicly accessible spaces, generating a dispersed network of plazas, atria, and open areas embedded within the urban fabric. Through cartographic analysis and spatial mapping, the research traces how these “bonus lines” —the invisible regulatory boundaries that govern density and form— shape the uneven distribution of public space across the city. Rather than incidental voids, these spaces reveal the mechanisms through which contemporary urban environments are produced, negotiated, and spatially reorganized.

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002 / 07
Logics of expulsion from territory (ALCOA)

61 × 46 x 41 cm

© Marta Morato

Galicia, Spain

2021
This project examines the post-industrial landscape of the Alcoa aluminum complex in Galicia as a territorial drosscape. Once embedded in global production networks, the site now reveals the spatial consequences of industrial extraction and abandonment. Through cartographic analysis and territorial mapping, the research uncovers the logics through which industrial systems both construct and expel territories.

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003 / 07
NOMAD-AHMEDABAD
61 × 46 x 41 cm

© Marta Morato

Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

2026

This documentary explores Ahmedabad as a living laboratory where architecture, production, and territory intersect. Developed within the Local x Society (LxS) Fellowship of the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid (COAM), the project unfolds as a series of interviews with conversations with local architects and artisans whose work is embedded in the city’s evolving productive landscapes. . Through the lens of Reading Drosscapes, the film documents how cycles of growth, obsolescence, and reinvention shape contemporary urban territories in the Global South.

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004 / 07 RPWT 25 - RENZO PIANO WORLD TOUR
61 × 46 x 41 cm

© Marta Morato

30 cities worldwide

2025
The Renzo Piano Foundation World Tour is an international program that invites 3 young architects to explore architecture through travel and direct observation. As one of the selected participants, the project became an opportunity to read buildings not as isolated objects but as part of broader territorial and material systems. Through visits, sketches, and spatial documentation, the journey expands the research of Reading Drosscapes, observing how architecture operates within the landscapes, infrastructures, and production networks that shape almost 30 contemporary cities.

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006 / 07
GAROÉ
61 × 46 x 41 cm

© Marta Morato

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

2023

GAROE explores how post-extraction landscapes can be reinterpreted through the environmental processes already embedded within them. Located in the volcanic quarries of Tenerife, the project proposes an architectural system that captures atmospheric water inspired by the legendary Garoé Tree. Through ceramic surfaces and lightweight structures, architecture operates as a device that reveals and amplifies the latent ecological dynamics of the landscape.

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007 / 07 AROUSA

2019

61 × 46 x 41 cm

© Marta Morato

Ria de Arousa, Galicia, Spain

2019
Arousa investigates the productive landscapes of the Ría de Arousa as a territory shaped by the interaction between ecology, infrastructure, and local economies. Through cartography and territorial observation, the project reads the estuary as a living system where aquaculture, maritime infrastructures, and coastal settlements form a complex productive landscape. By mapping these relationships, the research explores how architecture can engage with the environmental and economic dynamics that structure the Galician coastline.

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© Marta Morato - Computational Design

Reading drosscapes: As Computational Atlas of Wasted Landscapes

Reading drosscapes:
As Computational Atlas
of Wasted Landscapes