AA Landscape Urbanism  |  Fall 2016  |  Crafting Grounds

Modelling Manufactured Grounds of
Bakersfield Oil Fields

Location: Kern River Oil Fields, CA
Instructors: Alfredo Ramirez, Eduardo Rico
Collaborator: Matëa-Ana Mjc’

It is human nature to manipulate, alter, and socialize landscapes to fit their intended purpose. It is thus inevitable that a landscape be manufactured in order to tap its potential as a resource, and this can manifest as terracing, excavations, defence and retention, and remediation.

This project was an examination of such manufactured landscapes in order to understand the principles that govern how, to what extent, and in what capacity the landscape was altered while establishing a mature oil field. We researched existing territories as well as engineering techniques to understand the principles behind their construction as well as innovative systems available to construct these territories.

We then focused on a particular site, the Kern River Oil Fields, where the application of terracing and excavation techniques are apparent in the placement of Oil Rigs. We developed systemic representation tools to describe them in stages through a catalogue. This catalogue of data was used to finally produce physical models that describe the materials, variations and these different configurations.

In the end, we are able to test the implications of applying variations of the techniques and are able to visualise the spatial consequences of the application of these techniques in different contexts or requirements.

Explore the full project here.