Mine / Seed
Mine | Seed: The Temporal and Material Space of Mines and Seeds was a design studio taught with Prof. Leslie Ryan (Aerea Studio) in Spring 2022 in the departments of both architecture and landscape architecture.
Studio description: Lithium, mercury, nickel, and uranium exist in Oregon beneath a surface of forests and sagebrush, cutthroat trout and mountain quail and where survey stakes, cultural memory, and toxic tailings all mark land scarified by industrial mining.
On the same land, uncountable numbers of plant seeds are transported by wind and water, animals, birds, insects, fish and humans. Where mining is a process of human-centered “using up,” seed dispersal represents perpetual cycles of renewal, and relationships that are more-than-human.
Both mines and seed dispersal exist in far-reaching, relatively invisible spatial networks. Mining brings thick geologic time to the surface, shifting minerals to distant landscapes and leaving new holes in local communities.
Seed dispersal occurs in seasonal cycles that are enmeshed with the lives of rivers, birds, animals, weather, and new growth. Taken together, the space and time of mines and of seed dispersal manifest a precarious, inseparable material whole.
In this studio, we will use the tools of architectural research, design and representation (model and drawing) to give form to these material and transpecies relationships with a focus on the temporality/spatiality of environmental justice and survivance.
Student work by: Marissa Perez, Katie Reifsnyder, Jin Wei, Berhan Ayalew, Esme Alexander-Jaffe, Madison Sanders, Max Lafreniere, Evan Kwiecien, Jacob Schaeperkoetter-Cochran, Jenna Witzleben, Candi Rosario, Taite McLoughlin, Andrew Tesmacher, Damilola Alabi, Hiely Huynh, Sage Fetkenhourm Spencer Daigle, Blake Schoutenm McClean Gonzalez, Andrew Miller, Willy Benjamin, Madison Wolff, Victoria Gost, Isabel Hoff, Kayla Coyne, Thomas Freedman, Joshua Weber, Emily Addison, Toni Ly, Will Fice
