I have long advocated for the use of explosives to create the canvas for architecture. The idea being to blow the hell out of site, grass it over etc, mold it a bit here and there and let nature takes its course for a few years. Then design a lay of the land course over the site. Well, I finally came across some great evidence that this method can be superb for achitecture. On a recent trip to Flanders Fields I came across Hill 60, part of the 1917 Messines Offensive some 3 miles south of Ypres...which was the only real triumph the British achieved in Flanders during long years of fighting. At Messines, General Plumer, under the infamous Genral Haig, was ordered to attack the Messines Ridge as a strategic gambit prior to Passchendaele. The strategy for taking the ridge was to increase the ongoing tunneling efforts and eventually set off about 20 explosions in all using nearly 1,000,000 pounds of explosives....it was one of the largest explosions in history. The strategy worked as the Germasn were taken by surprise and in utter chaos during a creeping barrage which was supported by tanks and airplanes. The strategy worked like a charm and the entire Ridge was taken rather quickly...though the advantage of taking the Ridge didn't result in a positive outcome so far as the war was concerned. The bottom line was the overall strategy was about who would surrender first, a war of attrition. That Germany would crumble first only became clear once the US entered the war and some million soldiers poured into the fray by summer of 1918.
Anyway, one of the sites of the tunneling was Hill 60. A small site which still has a crater some 25 feet deep. The surrounding roly poly which is sublime for golf is spoil from the explosion which now feels more like a park than a battlefield. The concrete ruins are German bunkers.
It may sound odd, but it was heartening to find something cool on an otherwise somber spot. As a non-GCA aside, if anybody has an opportunity to spend some time touring the cemetaries, battlefields of Flanders and Menin Gate in Ypres, it should be grabbed with both hands. Its certainly a weighty excursion, but well worth while.
Ciao