Power | Energy: Copper Americana

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architecture &landscape

This research was conducted for Rosalea Monaccella’s research seminar: Power | Energy. The work helped frame my architecture thesis, which was completed the following semester. The recent increasing pressure to effectuate a Clean Energy Transition has brought with it a growing demand for hardrock minerals. Out of all the transition minerals, copper traces an important narrative. The metal is tethered to electricity. Its valuation has always gestured to our increasing reliance on technology. The acute demand for copper within the Clean Energy Transition problematizes the techno-optimism of our future climate visions and points to our present dirty habits.

This project considers how electricity drove our historic copper relations and speculates upon our Techno-Copper Futures. It investigates how interiority constructs the relationship between copper and electricity. It looks at the city of Phoenix and the adjacent copper triangle. The video project was broken into six parts:

• Part 1: Site 1: Arizona’s Copper Triangle, Born with a Copper Spoon:
• Part 2: The Birth of Electro-Pop Culture
• Part 3: Redefining the Myth of the Interior: Containment and Extraction
• Part 4: Site 2: Phoenix: Civilizing the desert, and Other Myths
• Part 5: On the topic of Critical Minerals and Mineral Stockpiling
• Part 6: Who decides Peak Copper?