Observation around Greengate, seeking wasted land.
This work is based on the study from 'Drosscape' by Alan Berger and 'The city that never was' by Christopher Marcinkoski.
‘Contemporary modes of industrial production, driven by economical and consumerist influences, contribute to urbanization and the formation of “waste landscapes”—meaning actual waste (such as municipal solid waste, sewage, scrap metal, etc.), wasted places (such as abandoned and/or contaminated sites), or wasteful places (such as huge parking lots, retail malls, etc.). The term urban sprawl and the rhetorics of proand anti-urban sprawl advocates all but obsolesce under the realization that there is no growth without waste and that urban growth and dross go hand in hand, and always have, not because of anything human, or indeed even pertaining to life, but due to physics itself. Complex processes must export waste to their boundaries in order to maintain and grow’ (Berger 2006:45).
Greengate is a neighborhood located at the Northside of Central Manchester on the west of Victoria Train station. A mixed scene of apartment buildings with tower cranes and car parks packed next to Ring Road.
When I walk around this area, the general feeling I get is the high-rise building surrounding neighborhoods. What I have noticed in this area:
1. An unfinished construction is going on Greengate road. But take a close look, the construction is not operating at the moment.
I interviewed a friend who lives in the Abito building( the opposite to the construction).
[Q: How long is the construction on this site?] [A: It's been quite a long time since I moved into my flat in Aug 2020. It was already being there and stopped.]
2. Large space of car parks located around Queen Streets. 3. A few areas are conditioning as vacant space.