industrial ruinsStanding in contrast to these aesthetically and socially regulated
spaces are the neglected sites of industrial ruins, places on the margin
which accommodate transgressive and playful activities. Providing a
different aesthetic to the over-designed spaces of the city, ruins evoke
an aesthetics of disorder, surprise and sensuality, offering ghostly
glimpses into the past and a tactile encounter with space and
materiality. Tim Edensor highlights the danger of destroying such
evocative sites in order to build new developments. It is precisely
their fragmentary nature and lack of fixed meaning that render ruins
deeply meaningful. They blur boundaries between rural and urban, past
and present and are intimately tied to memory, desire and a sense of
place. Stunningly illustrated throughout, this book celebrates
industrial ruins and reveals what they can tell us about ourselves and
our past. |
