POSTNATURAL GEOLOGY

Speculative Design

What if demolition waste became the minerals in the future?

Year 2,500. After relentless and insatiable mineral extraction, there are no longer minerals beneath the earth as we once knew them. The passage of humankind has left its mark, and current excavations reflect this. The new postnatural minerals are the result of unchecked extraction driven by the idea of linear and excessive progress. The desire to satisfy the technological, construction, and energy demands of the 21st century led to a geological shift at record speed.

Minerals that once formed through natural processes now reflect human activity. In a compulsive pursuit of what was once considered progress, thousands of architectural buildings from the past have been demolished. With natural minerals now scarce, a new layer has formed in the subsoil: what was once debris has now become a precious material.

This project, which reveals new underground landscapes as a reflection of anthropocentrism, aims to provide a critical look at the material effects we leave behind. Project developed in the course “Fiction, Critical & Speculative Design” within the Master in Design Research at BAU.