The Church of Mining
“The Church of Mining” is a cultural and architectural tribute to Cumbria’s mining heritage. Located at Florence Mine, a historic iron ore site in West Cumbria, the scheme introduces a museum, hiking trail, and event space, bringing together the local community and visitors within a landscape once defined by extraction. It doesn’t aim to restore the past, but to reframe it, allowing the industrial remnants to hold space for reflection, storytelling, and new cultural activity
The project is rooted in my personal interests in industrial heritage, immersive environments, and the raw aesthetic of post-industrial spaces. Like Berlin’s techno venues, which transform crumbling power plants into cultural institutions, this project sees potential in decay, not as an ending, but as an opportunity for transformation. Architecture becomes a tool not just for shelter, but for narrative.
The design draws on the monolithic forms and material honesty of the mining structures, presented through a contemporary architectural lens. My experiments with TouchDesigner, working with point clouds, feedback loops and real-time visuals, have shaped how I think about space as dynamic, not static. These digital practices allow for a layered reading of architecture, one that merges data, emotion, and visual intensity.
“The Church of Mining” is ultimately a proposition for how rural, post-industrial sites can be reactivated without erasure. It aims to honour labour, landscape, and memory, whilst inviting the future in. It’s about reclaiming space in a way that acknowledges what was there before, and reimagining what it can mean now.
