The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
About the Department of Architecture
Location Glasgow G1 | Courses BSc (Hons) Architectural Studies, MArch in Advanced Architectural Design, PgDip in Advanced Architectural Design | Head of school Tim Sharpe | Full-time tutors 9 | Part-time tutors 56 | Students 610 | Staff to student ratio 1:5
Postgraduate
Catherine Campbell
Course MArch in Advanced Architectural Design
Studio/unit brief Assembly (Urgencies: Studio 06)
Project title Geo-escharotomy: The catalytic healing process for post-industrial landscapes
Project description The exploitation of natural resources and heavy industry has fuelled economic growth and globalisation. Deindustrialisation in Scotland’s Central Belt has seen major resource-consuming industries decline, leaving anthropogenic ‘eschar’ – deindustrialised ‘wounds’. Superficial solutions to conceal these include housing developments and leisure centres. However, to heal land and community, environmental stewardship must be empowered to evolve a community-centric relationship with nature. This thesis proposes a catalytic ‘healing’ process to create responsive landscapes. Three areas across the Central Belt have been selected for phase one of Geo-escharotomy: Ardeer Peninsula, a mature scar caused by dynamite works; Ravenscraig, a current scar due to steelworks; and Grangemouth, the open wound of an oil refinery. A team of local experts, linguists and anthropologists will guide processes which all demonstrate different methods of anthropogenic healing.
Tutor citation Catherine’s project operates at various scales and temporalities, asking us to examine past scars inflicted on our landscapes, and proposing remedial approaches to the built environment and landscape more broadly. It is particularly impressive in its ability to span both strategic and tactical approaches, allowing the viewer a sense of the overall scope while using examples of on-the-ground activity to bring it to life. Neil McGuire, Hazel Wallace