The geology of landscapes

Times, rhythms, palimpsests of the Rhenish crater

Abstract (2023)

Authors

L. Cipriani Landscape Architecture - Architecture and the Built Environment
Research Group
Landscape Architecture (Architecture and the Built Environment) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2023 L. Cipriani
DOI: https://doi.org/10.11118/978-80-7509-934-1
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Published Date

2023

Language

English

Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Department

Urbanism

Research Group

Landscape Architecture

Abstract

The Hambach mine is one of Europe’s largest and deepest open-cast coal mines. Humans have transformed the landscape to the point of giving life to a new geological era. The mine is the symbol of humanity’s power over territorial, environmental, and climatic transformations at impressive levels of scale and scope. This contribution sums up five different times of the Hambach mine landscape,
with its rhythms and palimpsests: deep geological time, historical time, the rapid anthropogenic time of excavation, the present time of transition towards new forms of energy, and finally, future time with the conversion of the crater into a lake. Time is the driving force of this place in light of the geological, anthropic, and climatic changes. The work presents a reflection on the IDEA League summer workshop held in 2022 by TU Delft in collaboration with Aachen University and Politecnico di Milano.