The Hand of the Engraver

<p>The manner in which we dwell leaves scars upon the landscape. These scars are often left behind long after occupancy ceases. Countless derelict landscapes across New Zealand bear these scars left by human occupancy, but many are too advanced for remediation. Rather than removing scars, this thesis proposes allowing future generations to witness these scarred landscapes so that their intrinsic stories can provide important lessons for the future, while helping to provide unexpected new approaches to the revitalisation of these sites. Quartz Reef Point in Central Otago has been selected as the site for this design-led research investigation; it is an abandoned strip mine that appears so violated, that it has lost all apparent means of restoration or reuse. This design-led research project proposes that by building upon these scars, rather than ignoring or hiding them, these scars can be reinterpreted as lessons for the future that can help enable future generations to learn from past mistakes. The damage at Quartz Reef Point strip mine has been caused by ‘scratching’ the surface of the site so severely that natural systems have suffered inexorable damage. In the art of engraving, the surface of a copper plate is also deeply scratched––and the resulting ‘damage’ to the plate allows a story to unfold. This design research investigation looks at how the art of engraving can be applied to architectural design processes in ways that help tell the story of severely damaged sites such as Quartz Reef Point. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s book The Hand of the Engraver: Albert Flocon Meets Gaston Bachelard is used to establish a framework for this investigation. In this book, the architectural engraver, Albert Flocon, shares dialogues with the architectural philosopher, Gaston Bachelard––two distinct points of view about storytelling. The thesis proposes that when these two points of view are integrated with the voice of the architectural designer, the thesis author, new approaches for meaningful architectural interventions can be discovered to help bring the story of Quartz Reef Point to life for future generations. Using Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s book The Hand of the Engraver as a generative starting point, the thesis investigation asks the research question: how can the engraver, the philosopher and the architectural designer be brought together to explore new ways of looking at scarred landscapes that not only reinvigorate them, but offer their tales as important lessons for the future? This investigation proposes that architecture can engage scars on the landscape in narrative ways that enhance visitors’ awareness about the site and its tragic history. Jerome Bruner, senior research fellow at New York University, outlines a framework that he argues is necessary to advance a successful fictional narrative. Architectural heritage theorist Jennifer Hill discusses how retaining visible scars in the built environment can offer insights into how the ongoing transformations of a site contribute actively to the narrative of place. Environmental psychologist Jonathan Sime argues that contextual elements of derelict sites, in combination with a fictional narrative, can culminate in an enhanced ‘sense of place’ through unexpected architectural responses. This thesis proposes to integrate the theoretical arguments of Jerome Bruner, Jennifer Hill, and Jonathan Sime in a design-led research approach to the reinvigoration of severely scarred landscapes. In the thesis investigation, architectural elements and environmental scars are conceptualised as overlapping, each line advising the other. In this way, the thesis looks to communicate contextual narratives in a way that not only revitalises place identity, but also enables us to fully engage a site’s heritage and learn from past mistakes.</p>

The Hand of the Engraver

<p>The manner in which we dwell leaves scars upon the landscape. These scars are often left behind long after occupancy ceases. Countless derelict landscapes across New Zealand bear these scars left by human occupancy, but many are too advanced for remediation. Rather than removing scars, this thesis proposes allowing future generations to witness these scarred landscapes so that their intrinsic stories can provide important lessons for the future, while helping to provide unexpected new approaches to the revitalisation of these sites. Quartz Reef Point in Central Otago has been selected as the site for this design-led research investigation; it is an abandoned strip mine that appears so violated, that it has lost all apparent means of restoration or reuse. This design-led research project proposes that by building upon these scars, rather than ignoring or hiding them, these scars can be reinterpreted as lessons for the future that can help enable future generations to learn from past mistakes. The damage at Quartz Reef Point strip mine has been caused by ‘scratching’ the surface of the site so severely that natural systems have suffered inexorable damage. In the art of engraving, the surface of a copper plate is also deeply scratched––and the resulting ‘damage’ to the plate allows a story to unfold. This design research investigation looks at how the art of engraving can be applied to architectural design processes in ways that help tell the story of severely damaged sites such as Quartz Reef Point. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s book The Hand of the Engraver: Albert Flocon Meets Gaston Bachelard is used to establish a framework for this investigation. In this book, the architectural engraver, Albert Flocon, shares dialogues with the architectural philosopher, Gaston Bachelard––two distinct points of view about storytelling. The thesis proposes that when these two points of view are integrated with the voice of the architectural designer, the thesis author, new approaches for meaningful architectural interventions can be discovered to help bring the story of Quartz Reef Point to life for future generations. Using Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s book The Hand of the Engraver as a generative starting point, the thesis investigation asks the research question: how can the engraver, the philosopher and the architectural designer be brought together to explore new ways of looking at scarred landscapes that not only reinvigorate them, but offer their tales as important lessons for the future? This investigation proposes that architecture can engage scars on the landscape in narrative ways that enhance visitors’ awareness about the site and its tragic history. Jerome Bruner, senior research fellow at New York University, outlines a framework that he argues is necessary to advance a successful fictional narrative. Architectural heritage theorist Jennifer Hill discusses how retaining visible scars in the built environment can offer insights into how the ongoing transformations of a site contribute actively to the narrative of place. Environmental psychologist Jonathan Sime argues that contextual elements of derelict sites, in combination with a fictional narrative, can culminate in an enhanced ‘sense of place’ through unexpected architectural responses. This thesis proposes to integrate the theoretical arguments of Jerome Bruner, Jennifer Hill, and Jonathan Sime in a design-led research approach to the reinvigoration of severely scarred landscapes. In the thesis investigation, architectural elements and environmental scars are conceptualised as overlapping, each line advising the other. In this way, the thesis looks to communicate contextual narratives in a way that not only revitalises place identity, but also enables us to fully engage a site’s heritage and learn from past mistakes.</p>

Building a giant quartz reef at the Heyuan fault, South China: observations and multiphysics model

&lt;p&gt;A paleohydrothermal giant quartz reef (at least 75&amp;#160;m wide, 40&amp;#160;km long) and abundant hot springs at the Heyuan fault, South China, provide an excellent opportunity to investigate hydrothermal flows from the Mesozoic through&amp;#160;to present-day.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The giant quartz reef has formed in the extensional regime initiated in the Mesozoic, while a change to &amp;#160;compressional stress on the Heyuan in the Cenozoic led to the development&amp;#160;of cross-cutting strike-slip faults and associated vertical fracture network. Here, we present multiscale observations and analyses from the earlier long-term extensional phase.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Detailed microstructural analyses identified a 'quartz-reef window' of formation occurring between ~200-350&amp;#730;C, linking in both quasi-static criteria (accommodation space; massive fluid sources; and a cap rock/seal) &amp;#160;and dynamic mechanisms (episodic-dynamic permeability; brittle-ductile cycles; and fluid injection though brittle-ductile equivalent of Sibson's 'fault-valve' behaviour.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This oscillatory brittle-ductile fault-valve is recorded in the field through its apparent contradiction between idiomorphic 5 cm long quartz crystal growth in mode-I fractures, embedded at large-scale inside far from equilibrium fault zones with mylonitic and cataclastic microstructures. Another characteristic feature is the increasing quartz vein frequency towards the core shown by enrichment of SiO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;, with depletion of K&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O and &amp;#160;Na&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O in tectonites during alteration from the host granite; a reaction partly sourcing the SiO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; for the quartz reef.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;We present a first theoretical model compatible with the observation of oscillatory macroscale far from equilibrium conditions, followed by long periods of micro-scale local equilibrium. The model can in particular describe mechanisms of abundant SiO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; dominated fluid release reaching episodically above hydrostatic pressures followed by long periods of SiO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; precipitation, allowing growth of up to 5&amp;#160;cm long idiomorphic quartz &amp;#160;crystals in subparallel open channels, which presumably were held open by high fluid pressures. In this interpretation, the observations instabilities are seen to stem from the multiscale and multiphysics of the mineral reactions at the brittle-ductile transition, promoted by a slow extensional geodynamic driver at the Heyuan fault.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The new approach allows interpretation of rock physics properties in terms of recently discovered Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical (THMC) multiscale wave-like instabilities. In the model short wavelength chemical dissolution-precipitation reaction waves are bouncing between the phyllonitic cap rock and the mylonitic shear zone below. A resonance phenomenon of constructive interference in a finite width around the future quartz-reef triggers the long-time scale steady-state attractor allowing quartz reef growth over geodynamic time scales. We show that this solitary wave limit forms a standing wave matching the characteristic periodic pattern of mode-I quartz veining around the reef and also explaining the fluid overpressures leading to local hydro-fracturing.&lt;/p&gt;

Mineralogy of the Silver King deposit, Omeo, Victoria

The Silver King mine (also known as Forsyths) operated very intermittently between about 1911 and the late 1940s on Livingstone Creek, near Omeo, in northeastern Victoria. The deposit consists of six thin and discontinuous quartz lodes that are variably mineralised. Assays of up to 410 ounces of silver per ton were obtained but there are only a few recorded production figures. Examination of representative ore samples shows that the main silver-bearing minerals in the primary ore are pyrargyrite, freibergite, andorite and the rare sulphosalt zoubekite, which occur irregularly with pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena and sphalerite. Phase assemblage data indicate that crystallisation occurred over an interval from about 450°C to less than 250°C, with the silver-bearing minerals crystallising at the lowest temperatures. The lodes were formed by the emplacement of hydrothermal solutions into fractures within the Ensay Shear Zone during the Early Devonian Bindian Orogeny. There are similarities in mineralisation and timing of emplacement between the Silver King lodes and the quartz-reef-hosted Glen Wills and Sunnyside goldfields 35‒40 km north of Omeo.