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Sins of the Father: Exploring the Intersection of Architecture and Degrowth within the Post-Industrial Landscape

Part 2 Project 2024
Brendan Kerrisk
University of Dundee | UK
The role post-industrial landscapes such as the Ruhr Valley played in fuelling climate decline but be recognised, the sins of the father. This legacy put developed nations like Germany in a place of increased responsibility where decarbonising domestic industries whilst supporting non-domestic, carbon intensive ones is no longer enough. Using principles of Degrowth as a framework, this project is an investigation into what it means to take responsibility for material consumption, energy consumption, and carbon production. It also asks if this is a possible scenario where architecture has the ability to promote ideas and support the radical change required for continued human viability.

The Landscape of the Ruhr valley is an expansive one littered with giant abandoned machines of Germany’s industrial heyday. The projects looks to atone for the carbon sins of this region through careful deconstruction and reconfiguration into a new form of steel based modular living conditions where residents choose to live in an enclave of degrowth. At large this projects challenges what it means to be sustainable architecture and if any architecture can be sustainable if it plays into an economic system which demands continually increasing rates of consumption on the grounds of perpetual growth.


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2024
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