Description
Published between 1974 and 1985, the Swiss trade journal AC Tiefbau (Asbestos Cement Underground Construction) chronicled a vision of water infrastructure aligned with Cold War development agendas. Sponsored by Eternit AG, the periodical promoted asbestos-cement pipelines as adaptable, affordable technologies suited to Global South conditions. Yet beneath its optimistic framing of international cooperation and ecological contribution lies a deeper story of toxic economies, infrastructural dependency, and technopolitical power.This paper interprets AC Tiefbau as a hybrid site, part technical guide, part ideological apparatus, mobilized to support the expansion of global engineering in postcolonial contexts. From Libya’s ammonia plants and Botswana’s diamond towns to Tijuana’s border aqueducts and irrigation systems in Argentina, the magazine cast asbestos pipes as modernizing tools. At the same time, it obscured the health risks and environmental costs associated with their short lifespans and eventual decay.
Drawing on theories of the “spatial fix” (Harvey), technopolitics (Hecht, Mitchell), and hydrocolonialism (Hofmeyr), the paper shows how AC Tiefbau operated within a transnational aid discourse while reinforcing neocolonial hierarchies. Projects were often framed with racialized paternalism, presenting Western involvement as benevolent and scientific, while erasing local expertise and masking exploitative extractive circuits.
Seen in this light, the magazine’s mix of technical case studies, speculative essays (such as Doxiadis’s Ecumenohydor), and stylized editorial design offers insight into the environmental tensions of the 1970s. AC Tiefbau emerges as a key discursive object for understanding how architects, engineers, and corporations negotiated the rise of environmental consciousness while continuing to promote problematic forms of “development.”
| Period | 22 Nov 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | AHRA 2025: Conceptualising Environment(s): Continuity and Change |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Liverpool, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |