GEORGE HADLEY

Reverse Manufacturing // Jack Up Oil Rig Deconstruction: Shift to Renewables

Dundee , Sct -UK

Titled "Reverse Manufacturing," the project explores the global shift toward renewable energy and the gradual dismantling of the oil industry. The abandoned rigs left in this transition, relics of a fading era, serve as powerful symbols of change. Dundee, the project's chosen site, is home to two such jack-up oil rigs, now standing idle.

Inspired by Dundee’s rich industrial heritage and its golden age of global jute manufacturing, the project reimagines the city as an international hub again, but for Oil Rig deconstruction. Unlike its past, where raw materials were transformed into goods, Dundee would now reverse this process, breaking down goods -Imported Oil Rigs- into their base materials for reuse globally, distributing through its docks.

The architectural proposal focuses on three key strategies: the introduction of dry docks designed to address the human rights violations associated with current deconstruction practices, as well as the adaptive reuse of both on-site rigs to assist in constructing the facility itself. Finally, the project addresses the lifecycle of such industrial architecture and proposes its eventual decommissioning following the transition to renewables, with the architecture itself ultimately becoming a product of reuse to support the growth of the offshore turbine industry.