Maria Kaik

Architectural Engineering

A state of disassembly of the sand mining infrastructure

Shifting Sands - On Gradual Demolition and Participatory Nature

“Shifting Sands” is an exercise in vision making for a future without remains. It demonstrates strategic gradual demolition and reassembly as an important field for collective architectural engagement.

It is a design for a bird sanctuary in Parkstad, where the former instruments of financial accumulation are left unattended.

Such products of industrial transition reordered facilitate the development of ecology. Animal enclosures, low-maintenance greenery and suitable climate form an interdependent network via a reassembly of former mining technology.

These devices stimulate the ecology and eventually dissolve into landscape.

The project seeks to bridge the gap between the disciplines of Ecology Restoration and Architecture in times of industrial transition and automation. It demonstrates that one way of creating architecture that is an extension of the environment is to consider it as a device operated by natural forces. In time, weathering brings new value to the ecosystem, embracing the novel landscapes and microclimates.

More information