The Failings of a Fleet of Fools: Encountering the interiors of disused power stations
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Abstract
‘It is a philistine prejudice that conflicts and problems are dreamt up merely for the sake of their solution. Both in fact have additional tasks in the economy and history of life, tasks which they fulfil independently of their own solutions.’
- Georg Simmel
In November 1982 the New Scientist published a map of eleven power stations in Greater London which were lined up for decommission. With their institutional raison d’e?tre expired these objects no longer justified their monumental scale in the heart of the post-industrial city. Two shells, at Battersea and Bankside, escaped demolition and were earmarked for civic use. The encounter with these found interiors challenges the design expert to reflect upon what these seemingly alien spaces offer to an age in which the image of the contemporary prevails over sense of continuity.
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