Exit Lounge
This workshop approaches that suspended moment through material. Using clay from the mining context, and brown coal pigment, and aggregates participants built an exit lounge: a temporary structure for rehearsing the departure from coal, a future memorial.
Through a running-mould process, traditionally used for gypsum casting, wet/humid material is pulled through an elongated template to produce extruded forms. These element is conceived as a positive spatial counterpart to the negative space created by open-pit mining. The gesture proposes a speculative re-forming of what extraction removes.
Material: Clay, brown coal as pigment, reused aggregates
Process: Running mold
2026 - Zeitz - DE
Summercamp was organized by Reallabor ZEKIWA Zeitz.
Drone photos and videos by Simon Jaramillo Vallejo.
Till Kasielke: Steinkohle - Gestein des Jahres 2018: Entstehung und Eigenschaften der Ruhrkohle, 2019.
Lukasz Lelek, Joanna Kulcycka (2020): Life cycle assesment of opencast lignite mining. Springer.
Bundesnetzagentur: Kohleausstieg.
„Novalis und der Tagebau: Karteirung des Utopischen. Martin Ehrler. Frankfurter Allgemeine, 2020. Tagebauromantik“ – Ausblick auf das Abbaufeld Schwerzau.
Tagebau Profen, Besucherinformationen.
Disturbed by glacial activity, the lignite deposits came close to the surface in some places. Consequently, surface lignite mining probably began long before the year 1000 A.D. The first documented references to the mining and use of lignite in the Zeitz-Weissenfels area date back to the 15th century.
To expose the main seam, a 5 to 10 m thick layer of quartzite must be removed along with the overburden. Between 20 and 26 million cubic metres (40 million tonnes) of overburden are generated each year. This compares with an annual coal production of around 7.5 million tonnes.
The middle overburden, located between the upper and lower seams, is transported to the stockpile via conveyor belts. Since 1999, the overburden has been dumped onto a spoil tip within the opencast mine. Only around 35 to 50 per cent is combustible material (clean coal). Up to 16 percent of the raw lignite burned remains as ash and slag. The high water content results in a comparatively low calorific value.
The Profen opencast mine remains in operation and, according to the framework operating plan approved by the state government of Saxony-Anhalt, is set to continue operating with its Schwerzau and Domsen mining fields. The signs point to change; the end of lignite mining at the Profen open-pit mine is in sight. The Bundestag and the Bundesrat have decided to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038 at the latest. Subsidies are set to end in 2035. What will happen in this region after that is currently unclear.
Copyright: ETH Library Zürich, Image Archive.
Image 4, 5: Google Satellite.
Measurements in QGIS.
Image 6:
Hans-Peter Bärtschi.
Copyright: ETH Library Zürich, Image Archive.
In our workshop at Reallabor , we built an Exit Lounge with a central configuration that resulted in a circular form. We used old bricks as a base and gradually added material until it roughly reached the height of the profile. The template served as a guide both to establish the circular geometry and to define the final surface of the object. We later covered the surface with coal pigment.