Offsetted traces the emergence of the valuation of nature. The book unpacks forms of dispossession that are becoming more and more common through the protection—not only destruction—of natural environments. Tying into current struggles for climate justice worldwide, the publication contests neoliberalism as a savior of its own ecological contradictions: assigning financial value to nature in order to conserve and rebuild it. The book builds upon critical work developed in the fields of political economy, sociology, and ecology, expanding the debate on possession and dispossession of nature through a series of artistic and architectural interventions. An expanded group of critical thinkers, legal and spatial practitioners, delve into cases of naturehood from across the globe, inquiring upon the disjuncture between an economic system predicated on continuous growth and the reality of finite natural resources. The contributions challenge conservation models based on “natural capital,” while proposing new spatial tactics to definancialize the environment.

Cooking Sections (Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe) is a duo of spatial practitioners based in London and founded in 2013. The collaboration was born to explore the systems that organize the world through food. They have created multiple iterations of their ongoing, site-specific project CLIMAVORE, which explores how to eat as climate changes. In 2016 they opened The Empire Remains Shop. A book about the project was published by Columbia Books on Architecture and the City. Cooking Sections participated in the US Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. Their work has also been exhibited at Manifesta12, Palermo; the 13th Sharjah Biennial; Serpentine Galleries, London; Atlas Arts, Skye. They were recently shortlisted for the 2019 Future Generation Art Prize and the Visible Award. They currently lead a studio unit at the Royal College of Art School of Architecture, London, that investigates the challenges of the financialization of the environment.

The Royal College of Art (RCA) School of Architecture conceives of architecture as a diverse and complex set of practices that move beyond traditional distinctions and limits in the field. As with Offsetted, the RCA is committed with fostering a radical and innovative approach to pedagogy and research, as well as  an open-minded, experimental studio-culture.

The Royal College of Art is a postgraduate university specializing in art and design. The RCA offers 24 programs across the art and design disciplines, delivered through six integral schools. The six schools focus on architecture, design, fine art, humanities, communication and material. The Royal College of Art started life in 1837 as the Government School of Design, located in Somerset House in the Strand. Following the Great Exhibition of 1851, this relatively small-scale operation was radically transformed to accommodate art as well as design, leading the institution to be rechristened the National Art Training School at its new home in South Kensington. In 1896 it became the Royal College of Art. In 1967 the College was granted a Royal Charter, endowing it with university status and the power to grant its own degrees.