Fabric Care
Fabric Care reimagines Christo and Jeanne Claude’s Running Fence as a sand capturing system that will repair the damaged sand dunes in West Texas. Due to expanding sand mining and oil fracking activities, the oil and sand field of Permian Basin will estimate to be depleted in a hundred years. Lasting for three stages from 2050 to post 2100, this project proposes a landscape and an adaptive reuse strategy that turns current mining facilities into a testing lab, housing for terrestrial care workers, and a future public educational and recreational site.
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is a drilling technology used for extracting oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, or water from deep underground. Silica sand is used to keep fissures open and facilitate oil or natural gas flow from fissures into well. Permian basin is the largest petroleum-producing basin in the United States. Kermit Sand Hill sits on the central carbonate platform between the Delaware Basin and Midland Basin, where oil and natural gas are produced. The sand hill is formed through the accumulation of sand blowing from the nearby Pecos River. The supply of silica sand in central carbonate platform facilitates the oil fracking industry to extract more oil from the ground.
The installation of the running fence engages with local work forces, turning a technical geoengineering construction into a creative, caring, and almost ritualistic practice. The silos of current sand quarries will be kept as a historic monument, to remind and educate future generations the damage humans have done to the landscape. After the rehabilitation is completed, the Kermit Sand Hill will be reopened to the public, presenting the restored landscape and the intertwined history between humans and nature.
Left images: (1) Post-quarry Stage (2020-2050): deconstruction & adaptation of sand mining facilities; installation of running fabric. (2) Rehabilitation Stage (2050-2070): geological and environmental research; housing for terrestrial care workers, researchers, and nature lovers; sand dune rehabilitation, preservation of ecology. (3) Future Land Use (2070-): educational and recreational landscape for public access.
Spring 2022, independent work.
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Fabric Care reimagines Christo and Jeanne Claude’s Running Fence as a sand capturing system that will repair the damaged sand dunes in West Texas. Due to expanding sand mining and oil fracking activities, the oil and sand field of Permian Basin will estimate to be depleted in a hundred years. Lasting for three stages from 2050 to post 2100, this project proposes a landscape and an adaptive reuse strategy that turns current mining facilities into a testing lab, housing for terrestrial care workers, and a future public educational and recreational site.
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is a drilling technology used for extracting oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, or water from deep underground. Silica sand is used to keep fissures open and facilitate oil or natural gas flow from fissures into well. Permian basin is the largest petroleum-producing basin in the United States. Kermit Sand Hill sits on the central carbonate platform between the Delaware Basin and Midland Basin, where oil and natural gas are produced. The sand hill is formed through the accumulation of sand blowing from the nearby Pecos River. The supply of silica sand in central carbonate platform facilitates the oil fracking industry to extract more oil from the ground.
The installation of the running fence engages with local work forces, turning a technical geoengineering construction into a creative, caring, and almost ritualistic practice. The silos of current sand quarries will be kept as a historic monument, to remind and educate future generations the damage humans have done to the landscape. After the rehabilitation is completed, the Kermit Sand Hill will be reopened to the public, presenting the restored landscape and the intertwined history between humans and nature.
Left images: (1) Post-quarry Stage (2020-2050): deconstruction & adaptation of sand mining facilities; installation of running fabric. (2) Rehabilitation Stage (2050-2070): geological and environmental research; housing for terrestrial care workers, researchers, and nature lovers; sand dune rehabilitation, preservation of ecology. (3) Future Land Use (2070-): educational and recreational landscape for public access.
Spring 2022, independent work.
