Landscape Architecture Master's Projects

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Browsing Landscape Architecture Master's Projects by Subject "aggregate extraction"

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    A.R.E.A.M. AGGREGATE RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME: A CRITICAL TOUR OF AN AGGREGATE NETWORK
    (University of Oregon, 2022-05) Lorber, Stephen
    There are thousands of current and former extraction sites in Oregon. These sites on this tour represent larger themes at play in Oregon’s aggregate extraction network. As we follow a trail of Oregon aggregate, themes are developed that allow this expansive and complex system to become distilled into a conceptual framework. Aggregates start with the source material, and for Oregon, that material is almost exclusively Basalt or Sand + Gravel. How these materials differ would become apparent as we move through the tour. The aggregate supply chain is relatively simple. Extraction sites most often act as storage and distribution hubs that go directly to development, so it is easily distilled into a line segment with two points – source and destination. It’s an easily self-replicating model of material production. The supply chain is almost relatively short – 90% of aggregate comes from within 35 miles of the project site. In a world of hyper-globalization, where precious minerals cross borders easier than humans, benign aggregate remains local. And with it, the problematic reverberations of extraction can’t be outsourced either. The supply chain of source to destination is a simple explanation of aggregate extraction, however it doesn’t contain space for memory or projections into the future. Mines are finite - they have skeletons. There are also projections for the next iteration of the segment to begin. The sites on this tour show sources and destinations, as well as post-use sites and prospective extraction sites. This tour asks the viewer to consider the connection between the rural, exemplified by Oakridge, and the urban, represented by Eugene. As we move between these two regions, it’s important to meditate on who benefits from the sites on this tour and where the aggregate materials eventually flow. As someone on this tour, it’s also important to be cognizant of how the urban extends itself into the rural – and of how the urban’s extension – done to build its own cultural framework – relates to the shaping of cultural frameworks in rural communities. We might not own these sites, but these voids, structures, and empty fields are made by us all. As we move through this tour, I ask you to be reflexive - to think about how these sites intertwine with your life, how your dreams of a future necessitate the expansion of this network, and to think about how we can actively shift the processes to better align with how we want to see out world grow.