A palliative design for the (after)life of mine #7

In 2028, Norway’s last and longest-operating coal mine is expected to cease operations in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The context of the mine is quite unique in that most of the mine’s coal shafts are situated under Foxfonna glacier, and the remaining areas are set within and on top of a permafrost landscape. These cryogenic conditions, however, are currently undergoing rapid degradation due to an increasingly warmer and wetter climate resulting in glacier melt, ground de-stabilization and geo-hazards. This project proposes a decommissioning strategy and design for the coal mine that considers its cultural and environmental qualities and values. A key question addressed in this project asks how the closure of the coal mine can address cultural and cryo-geological changes impacting the landscape above and below ground, as well as the community’s future relationship to this landscape. The project adopts a concept coined by geographer Caitlin de Silvey called palliative curation. This recognises the finite lifespan of structures and artifacts through dignified and sensitive modes of curation. The design interventions take reference from the existing and predicted fluidity and entropy of the site where materials, structures and processes are concealed and revealed over different spans of time. It caters for a gradual transition of the diverse physical states of the site while maintaining social encounters. In doing so, it invites relations to evolve between humans and more-than-humans as the mine and cryogenic conditions slowly fade from this landscape.