Study Trip: The Elan Valley
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Tutor: Marga Munar Bauza
This unit proposes to research water as a limited, localised resource, yet one that can create and redevelop the local economy and improve social cohesion. Water is understood as an active element, able to determine its built environment. However, water in Wales also has a politicised and emotionally charged past that must be recognised. The Elan Valley is the site for this unit. This is defined and identified by its catchment area tacit to the limit that operates at the landscape scale, but it has presence at smaller scales. Thus, the limit is to be explored as limes (boundary) and limen (threshold) and as a strip that can be inhabited by the limitanei. In Heidegger’s words the boundary (a different term for limit) is where something begins its “presencing” intrinsic to the act of dwelling and placing. And gathering is related to the notion of “gathering”.