Decentering Material Extraction:

Energy production has long been heralded as a driver of “progress” and “modern” convenience; however, it also stands as one of the prime contributors to the degradation of both built and natural ecosystems. Prevailing debates surrounding energy infrastructure in Estonia frequently center on oil shale mining. Both Estonia and Finland persist as among the few nations globally still burning peat, which constituted 73 percent of Estonia’s primary energy supply in 2018. These figures raise important questions around the notions of regenerative design within the context of geopolitical energy reliance. The scars of oil shale mining are vividly discernible even from satellite imagery.

For decades, the global modernization endeavor—propelled by economic, military, industrial, and technological advancements—has professed to enhance community livelihoods. Despite these proclaimed intentions, the extractive industries have consistently failed the marginalized and disenfranchised, positioning themselves at the forefront of our planet’s climate crisis. While the country’s attempt to move away from oil shale production, wherein the consumption of oil shale extracted by state-owned Eesti Energia fell from 16.6 million tons in 2016 to 7.9 million tons in 2021, our relationship with the material circulation, proliferation, and accumulation has not yet begun to undergo forms of reconfiguration, transition and ultimately regeneration. At the heart of this precarious ecology of oil shale extraction is its circulation and transportation through the railway infrastructure.

The disruption of landscapes and the transit of sedimentary rocks across railways paint a portrait of an intricately woven, carbon-reliant network, deeply entangled with local ecosystems. Historically conflicts, as destructive as they have been, have spurred Estonia to pursue innovation and adaptation, particularly evident in the advancements made in technology for extracting energy from oil shale during WW1. Today, as Estonia confronts both global and local climate crises, it finds itself at a critical juncture. Like much of the world, it must re-evaluate its relationship with nature and resituate its political, economic, and cultural systems in response to the ongoing climate crisis. This moment demands a profound and reflective transformation, pivotal in shaping regenerative systems for future generations. As designers, thinkers, planners, and architects we have the duty to initiate methodologies, practices, and experiments to mend the collapse of the so-called modernization project.

Circular construction and the life cycles of products, objects, and materials have been rigorously explored as viable alternatives within current economic frameworks. This legacy continues with today’s practices of upcycling construction materials to create new structures. The project titled “Decentering Material Extraction” seeks to transcend these traditional approaches and look beyond the uses of oil shale, reimagining its potential beyond the mere physical decay through combustion to produce energy. It endeavors to cultivate both tangible and intangible new relationships between this raw material and the various human and non-human entities that interact with it, urging a comprehensive reevaluation of its role within our continuously adapting ecosystems.

This initiative advocates for exploring new possibilities as a form of defiance against the existing social and economic structures. It envisions a network of symbiotic relationships that includes materials, objects, and both human and non-human beings. By addressing the dual aspects of architecture’s impact on the environment—embodied and operational energy—the project confronts the intertwined challenges of material exploitation and environmental degradation.

The design proposal aims to reconfigure our relationship to the material reality of energy dependencies. Utilizing oil shale as the primary material for constructing a pavilion, the installation engages and activates the strata of the earth and the depth of Estonia’s landscape in two stages: initially through the layering and assemblage of rock, mineral, and peat, hosting both organic and inorganic matter using gabion wall construction to expose the diverse biome that lives within the geography of the land. Second, The form of decay and growth as non-human beings of fauna and flora cohabitate the geological strata in gabion wall they alter the composition throughout their lifecycle materials are broken and new living forms take over changing the architecture and spatial composition of pavillion , ushering a new construction phase carried out by non human beings inhabiting the peat, after the duration of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale the structure will be dispersed as multiscalar urban furniture. The installation will act as a performative infrastructure, which asks; what forms of planetary practices and energy dependencies make us human? By collapsing the distance and scale between the very mineral for which we are culturally dependent on and the architecture of social interactions within the context of the biennale, the installation attempts to foster conversations on opposing practices of “de-futuring” as defined by design theorist Tony Fry, and the negation of possible futures.

Oil shale mining is an imperial act, it is an act of aggression through its capacity to alter the environment, but despite being primarily known for its energy production capabilities, oil shale also has an intriguing connection to architecture, particularly through the use of its byproducts in construction materials. Post-2018, oil shale ash a byproduct of burning oil shale_ was no longer considered hazardous waste and became a primary constituent in cement production, in aerated autoclaved concrete blocks, and as an additive in concrete production. Rather than looking at the byproduct of oil shale our proposal engages with the raw material as an essential component in the peat ecosystem nurturing new spaces for human and non-human cohabitation. The Pavilion is composed of gabion walls, the metal mesh serves a dual purpose of hosting both shale rocks and peat composed of fauna and flora (topsoil inhabitants). The system does not require a foundation and is designed in segments to allow for the installation to be constructed in various stages. The scheme integrates the restroom as part of the pavilion. A series of seats, walls, shaded areas, and amphitheater, make up gathering and nurturing spaces where visitors are immersed in the underground biome that usually lives underneath our feet. We envision that this space would host a series of public programming, engaging environmental experts on oil shale mining in the region, including EKA Material Library building on the research of Peat Oil Shale Ash Composite developed by Märten Peterson. climate and justice activists such as “Fridays for Future Estonia”, and members from the Kohtla-Järve Museum of Oil Shale.

The pavilion acts as a reminder that precarity is one of the causes of reinventing and rethinking human relationships with its surroundings and designed systems. “Decentering Material Extraction ” brings together the tangible and intangible, the multiple life cycles of materials and ideas situating it locally and globally. Regeneration and circularity go beyond the obsolete materiality of things, it’s a form of building worlds from the ideological to the manifested designs/systems/ relationships.

This initiative advocates for exploring new possibilities as a form of defiance against the existing social and economic structures. It envisions a network of symbiotic relationships that includes materials, objects, and both human and non-human beings. By addressing the dual aspects of architecture’s impact on the environment—embodied and operational energy—the project confronts the intertwined challenges of material exploitation and environmental degradation.

The design proposal aims to reconfigure our relationship to the material reality of energy dependencies. Utilizing oil shale as the primary material for constructing a pavilion, the installation engages and activates the strata of the earth and the depth of Estonia’s landscape in two stages: initially through the layering and assemblage of rock, mineral, and peat, hosting both organic and inorganic matter using gabion wall construction to expose the diverse biome that lives within the geography of the land. Second, The form of decay and growth as non-human beings of fauna and flora cohabitate the geological strata in gabion wall they alter the composition throughout their lifecycle materials are broken and new living forms take over changing the architecture and spatial composition of pavillion , ushering a new construction phase carried out by non human beings inhabiting the peat, after the duration of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale the structure will be dispersed as multiscalar urban furniture. The installation will act as a performative infrastructure, which asks; what forms of planetary practices and energy dependencies make us human? By collapsing the distance and scale between the very mineral for which we are culturally dependent on and the architecture of social interactions within the context of the biennale, the installation attempts to foster conversations on opposing practices of “de-futuring” as defined by design theorist Tony Fry, and the negation of possible futures.

Oil shale mining is an imperial act, it is an act of aggression through its capacity to alter the environment, but despite being primarily known for its energy production capabilities, oil shale also has an intriguing connection to architecture, particularly through the use of its byproducts in construction materials. Post-2018, oil shale ash a byproduct of burning oil shale_ was no longer considered hazardous waste and became a primary constituent in cement production, in aerated autoclaved concrete blocks, and as an additive in concrete production. Rather than looking at the byproduct of oil shale our proposal engages with the raw material as an essential component in the peat ecosystem nurturing new spaces for human and non-human cohabitation. The Pavilion is composed of gabion walls, the metal mesh serves a dual purpose of hosting both shale rocks and peat composed of fauna and flora (topsoil inhabitants). The system does not require a foundation and is designed in segments to allow for the installation to be constructed in various stages. The scheme integrates the restroom as part of the pavilion. A series of seats, walls, shaded areas, and amphitheater, make up gathering and nurturing spaces where visitors are immersed in the underground biome that usually lives underneath our feet. We envision that this space would host a series of public programming, engaging environmental experts on oil shale mining in the region, including EKA Material Library building on the research of Peat Oil Shale Ash Composite developed by Märten Peterson. climate and justice activists such as “Fridays for Future Estonia”, and members from the Kohtla-Järve Museum of Oil Shale.

The pavilion acts as a reminder that precarity is one of the causes of reinventing and rethinking human relationships with its surroundings and designed systems. “Decentering Material Extraction ” brings together the tangible and intangible, the multiple life cycles of materials and ideas situating it locally and globally. Regeneration and circularity go beyond the obsolete materiality of things, it’s a form of building worlds from the ideological to the manifested designs/systems/ relationships.