168 
TAGASI
SINKING&SHRINKING
Adapting to Subsidence on an Example of Shrinking Kohtla-Järve
Masters’ Thesis
Department of Architecture and Urban Design, Estonian Academy of Arts
The focus of the master’s thesis is to shed light on the need and possibilities for revaluing post-mining industrial landscapes using the example of the exhausted oil shale mine Kukruse mine. Oil shale mining is a leading industrial process in Estonia, resulting in a spatial footprint with a recognizable rhythm and strong identity of the drought. Since until now underground mines have been abandoned after the exploitation of the resource, the master thesis offers a re-valuation of the underground industrial heritage with its own elements. Shurf, stretch, oil shale column and chambers are the guardians of the industrial past left in the shadow of the terrain, whose mechanical and conceptual functions can be restored by dusting the elements down and re-using them in a new matter. The thesis investigates which processes take place in the post-mining city of Kohtla-Järve from the perspective of both the subsidence (sinking) of on-mine residential buildings and radical demographic shrinkage. The aim of adapting to the subsidence and revaluing the industrial landscape is not to cure the decline, but to accept the ongoing demographical and post-industrial processes.
