SIX HUNDRED FEET UNDER

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SIX HUNDRED FEET UNDER

a cemetery in a bergsagen mine

Fanny Wetterrot

Advisors:

Ulrika Karlsson

Einar Rodhe

This project explores how an existing monumental structure, formerly used for industrial production, can change

program and inform the architectural approach, in both movement and materiality.

For centuries Stråssa Mine was used for ore mining, but 40 years ago the ore ran out and the grounds were left more

or less abandoned.

In this proposal the mine and the buildings left behind have been turned into a funeral site, to fill the holes in the

ground again.

The site have emerged from a valuable finding in the ground, and abandoned due to the fact that all of it has been

excavated, leaving a hollowed soil and a big open pit like a wound in the forrest. The mine has become a monument

over a lost time. It was built for production purposes, but after having lost its function it is just a reminder of a large

part of Swedish history.

The previous use of the site have been the main tool as inspiration for carving out the new use, a place for burial

ceremonies and the additional operational functions it needs. The path of the ore trough the refining process have been

transformed into a funeral walk, but reversed in it’s sequence of happenings.

In the new proposal you enter the funeral walk in the end of the ore production and finish in the ground. Either in the

drifts - the horizontal mining paths now converted into catacombs, or in the graveyard on the ground level,

construc-ted out from the same layout as the drifts but projecconstruc-ted on the ground surface. This pattern creates burial blocks with

the option for grieving relatives to visit a grave without going underground. You move around at the ground level in

the same steps as in the mine underneath which also becomes visible for the eye if you enter one of the viewpoints on

top of the buildings.

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geographical site

slambassäng 4. kulsinterverk 5. makadamverk 3. anrikningsverk mellanfickor 2. sovringsverk 1. lave Skala 1:2000 0 50 100 m

geographical site

slambassäng 4. kulsinterverk 5. makadamverk 3. anrikningsverk mellanfickor 2. sovringsverk 1. lave Skala 1:2000 0 50 100 m Skala 1:10 000 0 50 100 150 200 250 m

SITE

existing site plan

original scale 1:10 000

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storage silos

office building

sorting plant

storage facilities

headframe

enrichment plant

pelletizing plant

macadam plant

sludge basin

open pit

old headframe

underground mine

EXISTING

SIX HUDRED FEET UNDER

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LAVEN

the headframe

the connector

This building contains the evaluator machinery, and are the connection between over- and underground.

Characteristics:

Connection, bridge between underground and over ground

the most important conveyor

SOVRINGSVERKET

the sorting plant

the divider

In this building they roughly divided the material and separated ferrous stone from from grey stone Characteristics:

Dividing and sorting, rough order

MELLANFICKORNA

the storage silos

the pending

In the silos the material was sto-red until the

next station in the production line was ready to receive it.

Characteristics:

Waiting, pause for breath, cross-road,

preparing

KULSINTERVERKET

pelletizing plant

the collector

The ”slig” was transported to this building and produces in to small balls of iron in a size of 10-15 mm for easier transport to the steel plants.

Characteristics: Gathering, production

MAKADAMVERKET

the macadam plant

the caring

The ”slig” was transported to this building and produces in to small balls of ore in a size of 10-15 mm for easier transport to the steel plants Characteristics:

Reuse of waste, patience

ANRIKNINGSVERKET

the enrichment plant

the alchemist

Here the material was purified and produced to a fine size, so called ”slig” with help of crushers and mills to enrich the ore.

Characteristics:

Enrichment, making material, milling and crushing

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pre study - theme: heat

The model experiments conducted simultaneously trough the working process is

inspired by both the material process of the ore, but also about the mining operation

itself.

I have worked with what I call ”frozen events” which occurs when you pour

so-mething cold into soso-mething hot or vice versa, and these two materials creates

to-gether a new formation. Trough excavation and subtraction of these tests a translation

of the ground underneath materializes. What will happen to a material or an object

simultaneously created of two different substances, when you then only remove one

of them? What kind of shapes and geometries occurs and can these be translated into

spaces for the new use of the site?

These model tests has become a representation of the underground world, connected

to the site by the interpretation of the heavy work of extracting ore from the hard

rock. And they have led to architectural elements i shape of both spaces and

orna-ments. It becomes a kind of artificial geology inspired of the creation of the material

that led to why the site became populated and processed in the first place.

MODEL EXPERIMENTS

MATERIALITY

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model test 3.3

plaster and tin copy of wax model 3.1

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks - findings

model test 2.4

original

plaster after removing of wax (in boiling water)

inspiration: material on site

model test 2.3

cold fragments and pieces of wax in plaster

original

copying the original in the removed material plaster mixed with acrylic paint

inspiration: marbel, slaggsten

model test 1

model test 2.1

model test 2.2

cold fragments and pieces of wax in plaster plaster after removing of wax (in boiling water)

inspiration: excavation inspiration: excavation, cavity

model test 3.1

hot wax poured in cold water

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks

model test 3.2

plaster copy of wax model 3.1

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cold plaster in hot wax

model test 8.1

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks - excava-tion

model test 4

inspiration: excavation, cavity

cold plaster in hot wax (with accidental leaking formwork)

model test 6

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks - stalactites

cold plaster in hot wax (with accidental leaking formwork)

model test 7

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks - stalactites

model test 5.1

plaster and hot wax alternated into the casting form, and cut in half

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks - sediment, layers

model test 5.2

model after removing of wax

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks- sediment, layers

plaster after removing of wax in boiling water

model test 8.3

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks - whats left

model test 8.2

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applying design methid to a geometry of the buildings on site

model test 13

model test 9.3

hot wax in silicon form - copy of model test 9.2

plaster after removing of wax in boiling water

model test 10.2

cold plaster poured in hot wax

model test 10.1

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks plaster after removing of wax in boiling water

model test 9.2

model test 9.1

cold plaster in hot wax (with deliberate leaking formwork)

model test 11

inspiration: lava, creation of minerals and rocks - frosen event

cold plaster in hot wax (with deliberate leaking formwork)

model test 12

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N 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 8. 7. 9. 6. 10. 11 . 12. 13.

1. Chapel

2. Cr

ematorium

3. Bell tower

4. Graveyar

d

5. North view point

6. Flower shop

7. Funeral r

eception hall

8. South view point

9. Parking

10. Office

11. Lift down to columbarium

12. Memorial site

13. Columbarium

plan

original scale 1:250

A

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section A-A

original scale 1:250

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The important points (as entries etc) in the

walk trough the site are marked in the floor

or ground by a blue stone that is or

imi-tating the left over material you get when

you produce iron, so called slag stone.

Traces of the former productions has left

traces in shape of piles of pellets or ore

concentrate in the buildings.

plan

section

1. Entrance to chapel

2. Entrance for hearse to chapel

3. Ceremony room

4. Water pond

5. Cold store

6. Receiving area

7. Furnace room

8. Urn room

9. Staff facilities

10. Parking for hearse

11. Bell tower

12. Stairs up to viewpoint

DRAWINGS

SIX HUDRED FEET UNDER

1. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 2.

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Interior View Crematorium Section 1:100 Chapel Building Section Chapel original scale 1:100

The ceremony room is constructed out of a space frame system with a light color sprayed concrete surface. The new structure differs significant from the exitsing and pushing, hanging

and leen on the old concret pillars and beams

Interior view - Crematorium The wall around the furnaces divides the large hall but are detached from the surrounding structural system to create a direction for the visitor to continue the walk trouch the site. The furnace room walls are inspired by old foundries with their

thick walls to hold the heat.

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interior elevation - crematorium

exterior elevation east entrance to the

chapel

The existing concrete elements used as

cladding are replaced

concept of how different walking path

intersect

view towards the memorial site, situated on a

bridge that reaches out over the open pit

DETAILS

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parti study of the old pelletizing plant

converted into the chapel

model scale 1:200

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site model of the existing structure

model scale 1:1000

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Ruhr Museum - Norman Foster, 2001 “The big air pagage”, Gasometer, Oberhausen _{- Christo & Jeanne Claude, 2012} Cement factory converted into housing - Richardo Bofill, 1973 Zollverein Masterplan - OMA, 2001-2010

3D scan of the catacombs in Rome Löa hytta

Cementery in Modena - Aldo Rossi