The Living Heap

Abstract

The Upper Silesian Coal Basin in Poland is a fragmented post-industrial landscape dominated by anthropogenic coal mine heaps. Traditionally perceived as hazardous environmental liabilities and spatial barriers within the urban fabric, these monumental landforms are deeply embedded with regional cultural identity, industrial memory, and novel ecological systems. This research investigates the latent spatial, ecological, and cultural value of these post-mining structures, arguing against their conventional erasure or purely technical remediation.
Addressing the central question of how architecture can coexist with the evolving, unstable conditions of post-industrial terrains, this project uses the Makoszowy Heap as a primary case study. The methodology is grounded in Christophe Girot’s theoretical framework of the “Four Traces” (Landing, Grounding, Finding, Founding) and combines regional-scale territorial mapping, on-site sensory fieldwork, and physical material experimentation.
The resulting design proposal shifts from concealing the heap’s toxicity and instability to revealing its ongoing material and ecological transformations, such as acid mine drainage, erosion, and natural vegetation succession. The core architectural intervention is a Thermal Bath Complex situated in the stabilized, forested base of the heap. This complex operates on a circular material and energy strategy: it draws low-enthalpy geothermal energy from flooded underground mine shafts to heat the pools, and uses locally recovered mining waste - such as fly ash, crushed concrete, and limestone as primary construction and water-filtration materials.
This project provides a transferable design framework for post-industrial regeneration across the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. By integrating architecture, landscape, and infrastructural remnants, the thesis demonstrates how former sites of extraction can be transformed into dynamic spaces of public engagement, ecological adaptation, and collective memory.