Cultivating resources and inviting heterogeneous interests: the limits of the design brief for a resource plant

As we become increasingly conscious of the entangled nature of human existence, we need to become more attuned to the needs of other species, and things on this planet we are bound to. This presents us with an opportunity to rethink in whose interest we approach architectural design, and to bring vital voices into the process that have – until now – been unable to make themselves heard. We conducted an experiment in a site in Varberg, Sweden, as part of a project to transform a wastewater treatment plant into a resource plant that includes the land itself as a resource. The focus of the experiment has been on testing methods to expand the notion of what a public space is and whom it is for. The experiment involved devising and testing two different methods for reading the site in terms of what it is and what it could become. The outcomes include both experiences and partial perspectives on both opportunities and the blind spots we still have.