Liège’s mining history told in an ephemeral installation

Invited to take part in the exhibition “Precarious Architecture & Design” curated by architect Jean-Philippe Possoz in the frame of the third edition of the design Triennale "Reciprocity" – happening in the city of Liège (Belgium) until November 25th - Italian architect Paolo Cascone of Paris-based studio COdesignLab has come up with a site-specific installation entitled “The miner’s house”. Illustrating Cascone’s long-term research, that aims at combining local resources, natural materials and new digital manufacturing processes, the installation was conceived both as an archive and a production site – hence the shape of the structure which recalls a series of shelves for ceramic drying – and presents several objects made using earth mixtures collected from local mining sites.

Developed in collaboration with craftsmen of the region and master students of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Liège during a series of workshops on digital fabrication and semi-fluid materials – which happened in August 2018 – the project takes its cue from the history of mining which is particularly poignant in Liège, and explores the link between materials, (de)industrialisation and people’s flows. Therefore, expressing the exhibition’s investigation on the delicate role of precarity and fragility as unexpected, yet fertile tools within the architectural and design realms,  “The miner’s house” is profoundly rooted in the geographical and historical location for/in which it was developed.