Bryan Allen just returned from visiting the ruins of Chernobyl, follow his intriguing explorations of 'Post Industrial Latent Space' at his blog, updated frequently with great pictures.
Bryan is one of two winners of the Branner Fellowship given by the UC Berkeley CED in 2010, the 2011 winners will be announced next month. The fellowship is given to two or three M. Arch students each year and provides a generous stipend to travel the world for 12 months while researching a topic for their thesis.
From Bryan's blog :
To continue the exponential expansion of the past is no longer reasonable, responsible, or feasible. Terra incognita is a memory. Post-Industrial Latent Space presents it's counterpoint: the urbis incognita--hidden, forgotten, and ignored ‘wilderness’ of the city inviting exploration and temporary inhabitation. It is present in the hidden, forgotten, illegal, appropriated, and ignored contextual spaces we see every day. This new frontier sits quietly waiting to be explored and experienced.
These post-industrial latent spaces permeate the contemporary built environment and present an evolving opportunity for architecture. They exhibit architectural dreams and fears, at once inspiring architecture’s promise and aware of its ultimate entropy. Here the lines between solid/void, building/landscape, inside/outside become ambiguous yet, paradoxically present. In Post-Industrial Latent Spaces we see buildings long after the builders have left, the layers of human detritus peel away and materials and structures begin a temporal existence abstracted by time.
Nick Sowers, former Archinect School Blogger for Berkeley and Branner Fellowship winner's blog posts can be found at Soundscrapers.
Architecture Research Lab specializes in design and construction technology and is located in Berkeley, California - www.archresearchlab.com