Monica Tușinean

Design Phenomenographies for Industrial Wastelands

The long-neglected industrial wastelands of Romania present themselves as heterotopias in need of help. Post-Communist industrial ruins form a link to a multi-layered and difficult past, and their systemic erasure has contributed to a collective amnesia that perpetuates historical trauma and denies the local population access to the landscapes, natural and artificial, that tie them to a shared past and a collective cultural identity. This contribution aims to illustrate one methodology of bridging the gap between preservation through museumification and invasive architectural intervention. In this context, artistic and design-driven research practices can enable the emergence of ephemeral creative spaces that foster engagement with industrial heritage and reach beyond commodification and capitalist exploitation.

Biography

Monica Tușinean is an architect and researcher specialising in design and artistic research. Her work centres on large-scale neglected industrial heritage and innovative approaches to the reuse of ruins and intra-urban wastelands. Born in Romania, she now lives in Germany, where she works as an architect and completed her design-driven doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin.