Abstract

This paper considers the interruption of Amaravati, a project for a new state capital in southern India. I argue that the terms and conditions of Amaravati’s financing had specific spatial consequences at multiple scales. The discussion traces the deterritorialization of an agrarian landscape into speculative real estate through so-called “land pooling.” It considers the new technologies and modes of governance that facilitated this speculation and catalyzed an “all-over, all-at-once” infrastructural strategy that organized construction work synchronously on scattered sites spread across 217 square kilometers of land. The expedited construction of government housing blocks—using monolithic in situ casting techniques—further supported the financialized terms of development, emphasizing the imminence and inevitability of the future capital as a means of securing private investment from around the world. As Amaravati’s ultimate demise suggests, the abstractions of contemporary global finance can be grasped through a close reading of their architectural manifestations.

摘要

本文考虑了印度南部新州首府项目 Amaravati 的中断。我认为 Amaravati 融资的条款和条件在多个尺度上具有特定的空间影响。讨论通过所谓的“土地汇集”将农业景观的去领土化追溯为投机房地产。它考虑了促进这种猜测的新技术和治理模式，并促进了“全面、一次性”的基础设施战略，在分布在 217 平方公里土地上的分散地点同步组织建设工作。政府楼宇加快建设——就地使用单体铸造技术——进一步支持金融化的发展条款，强调未来资本的紧迫性和必然性，作为确保来自世界各地的私人投资的一种手段。正如 Amaravati 的最终消亡所暗示的那样，当代全球金融的抽象概念可以通过仔细阅读其建筑表现形式来掌握。