‘Wasted Landscapes’ is about establishing a state of change at Irk Valley. The area that once was heavily industrialised with cotton mills, and was densely populated with workers housing, today is overgrown suggesting the possibility that Irk might remediate itself. Hence, this project focuses on climate change, environment and social sustainability. The design is a waste-to-energy plant located underneath one of the heavily contaminated hills at Irk Valley - that would digest and remediate the contaminated land. Moreover, its program would be delicate enough to include the community into the learning process of how one place can be remediated. Besides Vauxhall Gardens being an electricity-generating hill, the overground is a calm, urban park with a matrix of networks that promote the benefits of recycling, phytoremediation as well as cater to the physical and mental well-being of its users. What highlights the underground building, and will become the next landmark of Irk is the 80m tall chimney rising above the residential buildings. While usually it is linked to pollution, the chimney of Irk will be integrated into society as it will be covered in vegetation, as well as act as a climbing wall for sports enthusiasts.
