Utopia and Oblivion

• Main Author: Hack, Keith Martin
• Other Authors: Not found
• Format: Others
• Published: Virginia Tech 2021
• Subjects: Architecture; Networks; Entanglement; Reciprocity; Expropriation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/103945

This project investigates the possibility of expropriating the industrial infrastructure of a now defunct oil refinery for the bioremediation of toxic soils, restoration of functional riparian ecologies, and reinhabitation of the site by human and non-human life. The context of the project is based on the assumption that such an undertaking is highly unlikely under the current economic and political paradigm. As such it is situated in the distant future, the result of prolonged liberatory struggles over many generations. === Master of Architecture === On the shores of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, the largest and longest operating oil refinery on the east coast has been recently closed following a massive explosion. The 1300+ acre facility is heavily polluted and contaminated with a multitude of toxic chemicals. This project proposes using the existing refinery infrastructure in conjunction with biological processes to clean the contaminated soil and make the site fit for all types of life again. Riparian ecosystems (those at the edges of waterways) are some of the most important to planetary healthy, and as such are an important area of focus in repairing the damage wrought by large-scale industrial and petrochemical processes. Because these processes of repair and reinhabitation require long periods of time, this project is imagined in a distant future.