The site and state of land use
10/01/0911:57 Categories: Planet |
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The way in which a place builds into form, and the nature of how that relates to changing human relationships has always been a source of fascination to me. One reason to explain the reason I enjoy working on projects like the public consultation for the Legacy of the Olympic Park, or experiencing art installations, amongst other things.
With the constant shifting of our relationship with ‘place’ in mind, I thought the following website would be of broader interest.
The Center for Land Use Interpretation website catalogues different sites of interest within the USA. Their database includes many ‘unknown’ or lost sites, themed categories include Transportation, Water, Cultural, Industrial, Mining, Waste, Military, Nuclear / Radioactive, R&D. The website also links to better known sites such as Arcosanti (Art Urban Laboratory) by the architect often framed as utopian, Paolo Soleri. A great resource.
A less enticing image, but a fascinating website nevertheless, Subterranea Britannica deals with forgotten, inaccessible and disappeared sites, usually below ground (as the organisation’s name indicates). Curiously the site shown above doesn’t look particularly subterranean, and there are a good number of other surprising sites to be found on the website.
In both these sites, it’s fascinating to see how history is formed, recognised, remembered, or forgotten.
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