Zachary Elliott


Design Projects

  1. Archiving the Ruin
  2. Temporal Lea-ping
  3. Embracing the Ruin
  4. A Torrington Square Adventure


Research

  1. Rusty Rebels
  2. Encountering the Riverine Park Nexus
  3. Green Space in Denver
  4. Molten Wastelands


Photography

  1. Architecture
  2. Landscape
  3. Urban
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MLA Landscape Architecture at The Bartlett                    BA Geography (First Class) at Oxford                        Freelance Photographer                    

© Zachary Elliott 2024

Archiving the Ruin


MLA Landscape Architecture / Y2 Final Project


Situated at Chatterley Whitfield coal mine near Stoke-on-Trent, Archiving the Ruin explores how we can work with a historically significant post-industrial site that has fallen into extensive disrepair.

So much of the existing site fabric is lost, unsalvageable, or in need of expensive and extensive repairs. And the site is of vital significance to local residents, ex-miners, and the country. Chatterley Whitfield was once the largest mine in the North Staffordshire Coalfield and is widely considered to be the most comprehensive surviving example of a colliery site in England.

Years of neglect mean that Chatterley Whitfield is rapidly falling into ruination. Entropy is irrepressible, finances limited, preservation of what can be salvaged the priority. The Friends of Chatterley Whitfield recognise that not everything can be saved, parts of the site will have to be let go in a process of ‘graceful decay’. How can landscape be used to receive the memory of these buildings as interiors become exteriors, as elevations collapse into plan?

This project asks how we can archive a place as it falls apart, as architecture becomes landscape. Hedges echo the form of buildings long gone, walkways weave through overgrown ruins, paths wind through an unfolding ruin forest.


In the Wake of Winstanley

Yew topiary rises as the Winstanley’s brickwork falls into ruin; a planted archive of architectural features less readily preserved in conventional analogue archives. Planting form is totally controlled and maintained, incongruous in a landscape otherwise falling apart.





Boiler Maze: Gearing Up

Whilst the Boiler Maze undergoes regular safety inspections, and visitor walkways bridge areas of ‘stable ground’, a ruin undergoing stochastic collapse is an inherently risky place to inhabit. Protective equipment should be worn by visitors to help mitigate this risk.


  In the Wake of Winstanley

Yew topiary rises as the Winstanley’s brickwork falls into ruin; a planted archive of architectural features less readily preserved in conventional analogue archives. Planting form is totally controlled and maintained, incongruous in a landscape otherwise falling apart.



A Planted Archive

Creating a ‘growable’ physical model enabled an investigation of how topiary could be used to archive ruins. What and how we preserve is a cultural decision: constant maintenance is needed to inhibit ruination and fix heritage assets in time.