excerpt
Ruins
in Burgundy
(p. 4)
In this guide, a building is considered to have become a
ruin when its windows or doors are no longer intact or when
walls or roofs have holes in them. When this happens, the
building is exposed to the weather: to wind and rain, or to
wildlife and vegetation. The building is no longer protected
from exterior elements, nature invades, setting off a process
in which building and nature merge. A building in ruin also
shows the materials it was built from and its construction
method, so that it gives insight into what it must have been
like when it was being built, when the place was still a
building site. The buildings that appear in this guide, Ruins
in Burgundy XIX-XXI, hardly resemble archetypal ruins. Most
of them are at an earlier stage; for example, an abandoned
building in which the process of decay has only just started.
Others have reached a stage at which the ruin has become
little more than a pile of rubble.
These ruins and abandoned buildings have no use, no
function. This means that they are left open to all kinds
of possibilities. At a time when every inch of land seems
to be organised and used with the utmost efficiency, the
existence of these blank spaces is something to be grateful
for. But it is important to remember that although some of
these ruins will remain standing for some time, others will
be renovated, and many of them will be demolished before
long. It is important to visit them before they disappear.
