As the era of “cheap nature” nears its end, it is worth questioning what new “ecological regimes” are emerging or being rediscovered today, ones in which living beings are valued within a network of reciprocal relationships rather than as inventory of capital stock. As decarbonization, the emerging low-carbon economy, and the race for critical minerals reorganize power, capital, and nature once more, the built environment—where embodied energy accounts for a growing share of the sector’s emissions—remains a primary site where this reorganization takes hold.

World-Ecologies in Formation is a collaboration between e-flux Architecture, the Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture, and Yale School of Architecture, within the context of its 2026 J. Irwin Miller symposium.