Zeche Zollverein Coking Factory [link]
Essen, Germany
Once Europe’s largest coal mine and coking factory, the Zeche Zollverein Complex has transformed into a machine-age playground: a rusty mega-creature of intertwining pipes and towering chimneys. Weeds grow over the former rail tracks in this postindustrial, pre-apocalyptic landscape while animals take shelter in derelict boiler houses. Witness the midpoint of entropy; a deterministic fate to all matter. The quasi-romantic erosion of the factory stands in contrast to the bold, out-of-scale concrete cube: a school for management designed by SANAA [link]. Pritzker-chic pretention and lack of students has lead to it’s current state of liquidation: a portent of hubris.
~ Gili Merin
* images courtesy of Gili Merin
