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Geo-Escharotomy: The Catalytic Healing Process for Post-Industrial Landscapes

Part 2 Project 2023
Catherine Campbell
University of Strathclyde | UK
Deindustrialisation in Scotland’s Central Belt saw major resource-consuming industries decline, leaving behind anthropogenic ‘eschar’ - dead tissue of de-industrial wounds. The scars are often concealed through long-term masterplans, however, healing the land and community requires empowering environmental stewardship to restore and evolve a community-centric relationship with nature. Anthropogenic landscapes must adapt to the changing environment and society. Therefore, ‘Geo-escharotomy’ proposes a continuous, catalytic healing process to create responsive landscapes through a learning progression of time-based actions.

Three industrial sites have been chosen for the initial stage of ‘Geo-escharotomy’: Ardeer Peninsula, a matured scar caused by dynamite works; Ravenscraig, a present scar caused by steelworks; and Grangemouth, an open wound of an oil refinery. A healing team, including local experts and linguists, employs different methods of anthropogenic healing. Catalysts for environmental stewardship are seeded within the eschar to foster growth and symbiotic relationships with the land. The stewards document their incremental land interactions within the one-year process to explore their catalytic experiences and future actions. Through this process, the anthropogenic eschar becomes an asset to the community, enabling a new method of environmental stewardship and creating continuous narratives of healing which grow organically, in symbiosis with the land and community’s needs.

Catherine Campbell

Tutor(s)


2023
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