Neglected Walls Contact Zones of Architectural Matter and Spontaneous Vegetation

Abstract

This work investigates neglected urban walls as socio-ecological formations that challenge conventional architectural conceptions of stability, authorship, and control. Focusing on three case studies in Hamburg, it examines how built matter, spontaneous vegetation, and professional practices co-constitute one another across uneven temporalities and spatial scales. Rather than treating walls as static artefacts, the research traces trajectories of material transformation, biotic inhabitation, and institutional negotiation shaped by built matter, plant agency, and regulatory frameworks. Methodologically, the study combines multimodal site analysis, experimental prototyping, and anthropological inquiry to render visible interactions that typically remain marginal to architectural knowledge. Drawing on posthuman and relational theories, the paper foregrounds indeterminacy as a productive condition of urban environments and proposes an architectural mode of inquiry attentive to socio-ecological relationality. The contribution lies in articulating transferable methodological and conceptual tools for design research that engages with biodiversity, material agency, and uncertainty in contemporary urban transformation.