Mine City
at UIC School of Architecture
w/faculty Sarah Dunn
There are approximately 12,000 abandoned subterranean mines documented within the United States, and as many as 500,000 mines that have yet to be recorded. Many of these are in locations now highly desirable for settlement and recreation due to topographical and climatic conditions (primarily identified as ski resorts).
The re-purposing of these abandoned mines with services and program can provide the growing population with amenities that might not otherwise exist in the area. It can also provide a location for existing program-types that are less desirable in aboveground settings. The cavernous volumes and unusual spatial configuration of these subterranean mines offers an opportunity for trans-programming that can produce a new condition of “interior urbanism”. Through the use of the existing voids as constraints for organization, programs and their users begin to overlap, creating the potential for something new.
