Mined

When I was eight years old I took an expedition with my family out west. One of the stops along the way was the Black Hills in South Dakota. With my small Olympus 35mm camera I took these pictures only knowing then that this was a "cool" place of mystery and possibilities. I collected some mica flakes, took some photos and crept just close enough to see the the dark interiors while being warned of the possibility of a collapse. I now really doubt that my eight year old frame might add enough stress to these structures for collapse. Many of them have been in an abandoned state for nearly a century. The Black Hills Mining Museum says, "Many mines were established during the early years of the boom (1870's) and many played out quickly. Most of them closed in the very early 1900's due to the lack of high grade ore and increasing costs" 

These structures are currently sitting dormant within the Black Hills and across numerous other landscapes in America. "As the American western landscape is being reclaimed, it continues to spawn ideas of exploration, expansion and discovery, technological domination, and transformation... The western United States currently holds over 200,000 abandoned and active mines covering millions of acres and tens of thousands of square miles. Funding for future federal and state reclamation will make this ongoing infrastructural project one of the largest- in terms of scale and spending- in the history of the United States". -Alan Berger Reclaiming the American West 
Each abandoned place like the one I discovered when I was eight rests within or outside a community parceled smaller than that of the great American West. Each of these smaller interventions leads to new possibilities with its contributions beyond a tourist hot spot. Can these small buildings set in the wilderness become excavation stations, surveillance outposts, or a water folly? As mining resources had diminished these places were walked away from but it may be possible to walk the site again with a fresh approach and new technology to elicit more from the site again finding richness in the reclaimed architecture of this landscape.

life after life

I wonder if a cow would rather live here than a brand new barn. It still has shelter from the elements, a solid roof on one side and a lush canopy of brush on the other. There are numerous rooms for friends of the heard to stay during a visit from the folds of the collapse. It's a safe abode camouflaged with the grade it sits on as a safe haven from the unknown.  

This is one instance with one occupant in one location, but what are the possibilities? The derelict architecture could still have a second life with the proper perspective and remediation. Each place can be traced from its old program and occupation into new spaces as the grade begins to wrap itself around the existing structure. From this starting point thesis is an exploration about new possibilities of materials and ecology that can stabilize that which is already existing. 

These places have already found themselves into a state of equilibrium as people have walked away and nature has crept in. What actions can be taken then to manipulate these places into something in between nature and people.