ABANDONED!

My whole life, I have been fascinated by abandoned buildings. I so badly want to know what is inside them, the events that transpired there, and why they were abandoned to be overtaken by the whims of nature. I have always thought about buying an abandoned building or house and renovating it to turn it into a restaurant. I think it would create a really unique ambience. I like going up to abandoned buildings and looking in the windows. Seeing the objects that were left behind and wondering what purpose they served and whether they were left on purpose is always a provoking investigation. I think this fascination has a lot to do with my knowledge and interest in archaeology...

There is an old church by my grandfather's house in the country that has been abandoned for quite some time and I've been watching it become more decrepit through the years, succumbing to the changes of the season. I look in the windows every time I go there to see what sorts of animals have made it their resting place. I've never gone in, but it is a dream of mine. The doors are padlocked closed, and I don't want to destroy it any further by trying to break in. I hope it stands for a long while to come.

I decided to investigate into this fascination of mine on the internet, and I stumbled upon this website that documents all of these different abandoned wonders. Here are a few of my favorites that I took from this site:



This is an abandoned site in San Zhi, Taiwan. It was apparently being built as a unique vacation spot, however there were a number of accidents and deaths that occurred during its construction, and no one ever wanted to vacation there because it is said to be haunted now.


Craco, Italy is a town that sits precariously on the edge of a cliff. It's residents experienced a number of plagues (illness, drought, etc.) over the years that caused them to slowly filter out of the town. The last people left in the 1960s after an earthquake.

"Kowloon Walled City was a loophole, a glitch never meant to exist. It grew organically devoid of building codes and largely absent of legal oversight, a kind of organic tent city times one thousand. As it grew without rules some areas were cut off entirely from natural light and air, crime ebbed and flowed and everything grew densely packed until the government finally intervened - evacuating the city and demolishing what remained."


An entire city in Ukraine that was abandoned because of the tragedies and spill over of Chernobyl. Residents weren't able to take any of their possessions with them.

And I thought an old tiny church was impressive! I wish that more of these spaces could be reused...

http://www.weburbanist.com