Socioplastics 11930 Care for Plants without Anthropomorphism
Editorial status: Working essay developed from a historical marker proposition. Urban greening is often justified through ecosystem services, which make vegetation legible through the benefits it provides to people. CreatureRegard asks how design can recognise vegetal life while maintaining a clear account of plant processes and human responsibilities. A tree’s growth, root conditions, pruning and response to drought extend beyond the performance indicators used to evaluate a project. Michael Marder’s philosophical work attends to plant life and its modes of existence. Holmes Rolston III develops environmental ethics that considers value beyond human use. Their approaches offer different grounds for examining how design represents vegetation. The inquiry can recognise living trajectories through material and ecological evidence without attributing human speech or intention to plants. A project could follow a planted tree through its water supply, pruning schedule, root constraints, soil conditions and survival across seasons. The record would connect design decisions with observable growth and municipal obligations. Researchers could compare plans that treat the tree primarily as shade infrastructure with those that also preserve ecological conditions supporting its continued development. CreatureRegard examines the ethical and material consequences of representing vegetal life solely through instrumental outputs. It helps designers document responsibilities that become visible through a plant’s dependence on soil, water, space and care. The marker supports a grounded account of nonhuman life in urban projects, linking design intentions to ongoing ecological conditions and maintenance practice. It also gives project teams a basis for evaluating whether care commitments persist through changes in ownership, staff and budget. This record can make long-term responsibilities legible within ordinary design and maintenance decisions.
REFERENCES
Marder, M. (2013) Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life. New York: Columbia University Press.
Rolston, H. (1988) Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in the Natural World. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
CITE AS
Lloveras, A. (2026) Socioplastics, LAPIEZA-LAB, Madrid.
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