ZHIYING DENG
THE OLD TURTLE LAKE, HUAINAN, CHINA
In Huainan, an industrial city in central China, workers are mining for coal around 800 meters underneath the ground. Due to the over-exploitation, the land has experienced extreme subsidence. At the same time, ground water infiltrated the land and formed waterbodies which are called collapsed-lakes. Villages in the area have slowly sunken into the lake after all the residences moved away. A peculiar landscape has witnessed its own birth in the shadow of disruption.
We visited a poet, Lao jing, who has been working under coal mines for almost ten years and parallelly writing poetries about the life of coalmine workers. He took us around to visit abandoned mines. He also showed us one of the biggest collapsed-lake which has gained its new name, the old turtle lake. Underneath the old turtle lake, there was an old excavation spot where a vital accident happened because of illegalmining. Seven of the colleagues of the poet were burried.
Architects could also write poetry. We pro- pose a small memorial on the coast of the old turtle lake. It should be a silent monu- ment that tells stories about humans and the ground; about the sorrowful past and the newborn landscape.
MINOTAUR, ATHENS, GREECE
The Keramikos area is not far away from the archeological centre of Athens. Now it has been covered with a homogeneous urban layout with polykatoikia buildings. Although the semester’s theme is about housing interventions in the area, the dis- covery of an ancient cemetery below the appointed site has largely changed the pro- gram.
It is an unprotected graveyard under- ground which is said to be a military ceme- tery dating back to the 5th century. Due to the presence of this ancient ruin, although this small piece of land belongs to a private owner, it remains unbuilt and has become a public space in the homogeneous urban grid.
Athens is a city rich in theatre and play; thus, mini theatres can be found in every corner of the city. A new school for theatre with studios and living for artists was pro- posed as the new program. To maintain the publicity of the site and keep the graveyard
intact, the ground floor of the building is lifted, creating movements from the street down to the courtyard. A theatre space that can be opened toward the graveyard be- comes a key articulation point of the whole complex. Various way of use is allowed.
Linen white of the earth and olive green of the trees characterize the southern greek landscape. Although different in technique and style in ancient times, the keramikos area is closely connected to the crafts- manship of ceramics. Olive green ceramics have been applied to the facade, noting the publicity of the building, which is different from the white polykatoikias around.
UNTITLE, BASEL, SWITZERLAND
The project concentrates on the new developments on the Margarethenbrücke. By creating a bridge of over 130 m's span with the structure composed of two concrete Vierendeel beams, the train tracks acquire the possibility of future reorganizations. These two beams are, on the one hand, holding the platform in between them, forming a public space in front of the new entrance to the station; on the other hand, they become two street facades that maintain the continuity of the street and thus strengthen the feeling of connection between the two sides of the railway streams. Furthermore, the massive beams are used for different programs: a roof that shades the station's new entrance and a bicycle storage machine. With this simple and condensed gesture, the new-built bridge solves some significant problems in the area and allows future development of the place.
