Post-Industrial Ecology: The Sanctuary
Post-Industrial Ecology : The Sanctuary
Name: Joanne Tiaw Zuo Eng
Thesis Supervisor: Mr Ho Weng Hin
Site: Lynas, Gebeng Industrial Estate, Kuantan, Malaysia
Project Cluster: Conservation
Kuantan is highly regarded as one of Malaysia’s most significant biodiverse coastlines, yet it is also one of its most contaminated. Over the last decade of industrial occupation, the topography of this fragile environment has radically transformed. Kuantan Port, shipyards and water-bound infrastructure now define a highly modified and dilapidating shoreline. Despite being one of the most prominent and earliest resort towns in Malaysia, enormous scale of industrialisation has sprawled mercilessly across the coastal regions.
The ongoing saga of people power against the state-backed corporate power shed light on the world’s largest rare earth extraction plant – Lynas. In what way might the delicate ecosystem of the Gebeng’s low-lying swamp be renewed amidst an extent landscape of post-industrial degradation? Tapping into the established tourism platform, this thesis centres around a re-conceived rehabilitation of post-industrial ecology through the means of eco-tourism in different phases.
Post-Industrial Ecology : Rehabilitation Processes
Post-Industrial Ecology : Proposed Evolution
Environmental Stewardship : Ecosystem Renewal
The speculative proposal challenges conventional approaches towards brownfield clean-up in developing countries after the cease of operation – uncontrolled, huge stinking dump sites without seeing an end to the global exploitation. As a response to the industrial exploitation, the project re-imagines an inhabitable landscape centering around the powerless. Having the advantageous precondition as a low-lying swamp in Gebeng, the growing ecosystem would give value back to the community in a self-perpetuating cycle that assured the long-term sustainable livelihood of both people and nature, steering towards community cohesion and environmental stewardship.
The Interconnectedness of Life
The Fall & Rise of Blooming Flowers
An Augmented Landscape of Resilience