FORTRESS BESIEGED

Abstract

China owns the largest share of coal in the world, and has been the heaviest consumer. Shanxi Province, as one of the top provinces which is abundant in coal, has played significant role in excavating coal mines which is necessarily the fuel for the industrial development. However, these provinces are now gradually falling into the “resource curse”. The economic development of Datong City, Shanxi Province, China has always highly and almost solely relied on coal mining and its related industries. Due to the climate concern, the central government of China has taken actions to close coal mines and switch to cleaner energy. The land subsidence induced by mining activities, high unemployment rate, and the lack of alternative industry all leads to the economic recession. The mayor of the city carried out the regime to revive the historical culture value of the city, and thus promise to prosper in the service and consumptive industries like tourism. One of the biggest strokes was to rebuild the ancient city wall by entombing the relic with modern bricks as a reification of progress from the recession of coal industry. The thesis is a critique on this strategy of museumification of the city from what was once real, fearful and embodied with suffering to a purified consumptive culture in an abstract way. The phantasmagoria of coal mines in the reified city wall, and the by-products like coal gangue are used as critical tools. Masterplan and architecture design of the main exhibition center are carried out to promote a switch from consumption culture to cultural consumption. Coal gangue, the byproduct of coal mining performs as a medium to reveal the specificity of the city and the container to hold cultural events.