Quarry Stories - Architecture through Narrative Exploration

Abstract: This book, Quarry Stories - Architecture through Narrative Exploration, collects the process and proposals of our thesis, responding to the question: How can critical post-humanist philosophy, using stories as a tool, enhance our understanding of architecture and activate narratives in limestone quarries? We view the limestone quarries on Gotland as an example of humans’ relationship with nature: we take what we want and leave. Although significant for the industry, the quarries are troublesome from an ecological perspective. Rather than debating their existence or non-existence, we aim to explore their potential - what imaginaries can we envision for these sites?  We use the word ‘story’ to let narratives shape architecture, partially by writing stories for each quarry but also by including different narrative perspectives. We were curious to examine what architecture our entanglement with non-human actors can generate. We believe that stories can help us challenge our imagination and explore architecture from an alternative point of view.  While the outcome is three proposals for three different quarries on Gotland, we view the project as an exercise in exploring architecture through practical and artistic research. Here, narrative activation and critical post-humanist philosophy serve as an approach to architecture.