Transitioning Energy (and) Landscapes
Exploring infrastructural, architectural and landscape symbiosis
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Abstract
The North Sea region’s energy transition has begun. The prospect of how it will happen and what it will look like, however, is still shrouded in uncertainty. What is clear is that this is a mammoth project of unprecedented scale. The sheer quantity of renewables we need to integrate into our energy infrastructures will transform our peri-urban and rural landscapes as we know them. A new spatial order will arise: one of energy landscapes. This thesis has investigated this infrastructural and morphological transition through a transcalar ‘research by design’ approach. It has endeavoured to re-establish the role of architecture as an infrastructural enabler in a projected (extreme flooding and drought) scenario, developing a transcalar spatial order in the Scottish Highlands region of Brora. The project’s agency culminates in striving to achieve symbiosis between the infrastructural design of a proposed hydro-electric energy network, the receiving landscape and the habitable space needed for existing local life. The design focuses on water and electricity delivery to an existing distillery in the area, while also reinterpreting the typological arrangement of the distillery to be as energy efficient as possible. Ultimately, it seeks to break down the cultural divide between ‘urban’ and ‘landscape’.