The chapter outlines a pedagogical approach employed in a third-year architecture studio at MSA during the 2023/24 academic year, aimed at fostering an alternative model of planetary habitability by encouraging students to move beyond the urban environment and deeply engage with landscapes. The approach challenges traditional notions of 'landscape,' reinterpreting it through the concept of the 'critical zone'—a term that emphasizes human-environment interconnectedness and questions extractive views of land. Students are introduced to the critical zone as a fragmented, patchy entity that accommodates human activities and fosters meaningful places. The pedagogy described includes an activity in which students develop a ‘field guide’ to document the relationship between human activity and the landscape as a first act of reading the landscape. This experiential learning approach aims to reassess interdependencies and highlight architecture's potential in addressing ecological challenges on both local and planetary scales.

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• https://radar.gsa.ac.uk/9666/