Work
Work
My work connects deindustrialization research, brownfield transformation and orientation-based decision methods.
The central question behind my current work is how individuals, institutions and planning systems can remain capable of responsible action when inherited structures lose their adequacy.
This question appears in several fields: deindustrialization, brownfields, post-mining sites, urban transformation, AI-mediated meaning production and decision-making under uncertainty. These are not separate topics. They are different expressions of a broader problem: how to preserve orientation when old frameworks no longer provide reliable guidance.
Deindustrialization and Post-Industrial Change
Deindustrialization is not only an economic process. It produces spatial, institutional and cognitive consequences. Industrial structures may lose their original function, but their physical and infrastructural presence remains. Cities and regions must then decide what to preserve, transform, reuse, dismantle, sell, protect or leave open.
My work approaches deindustrialization as a long-term transformation of adequacy. A structure can once have been coherent and necessary, yet later become residual, obsolete or difficult to orient within.
Brownfields and Difficult Transformation Sites
Brownfields are not merely unused or underused land. They are test sites of post-industrial transformation.
They bring together ownership problems, contamination, infrastructure, memory, demolition costs, public responsibility, investment uncertainty and conflicting expectations. Their future cannot always be derived from market demand or conventional planning categories.
This is why brownfields require structured orientation before premature decisions are made.
Adaptive Brownfield Systems
Adaptive Brownfield Systems is the practical method currently being developed from this work.
ABS helps structure the early phase before planning, sale, reuse or redevelopment. It asks what is known, what is uncertain, who is involved, what pressures exist, what constraints matter and which decisions are premature.
ABS is not a design style. It is a decision-preparation and audit method for complex sites.
Adaptive Transformation Systems
Adaptive Transformation Systems is the broader methodological frame behind ABS.
While ABS focuses on brownfields and post-industrial sites, ATS can also apply to other transformation contexts: post-conflict areas, post-disaster sites, demographic decline, infrastructure failure or other situations where existing structures have lost adequacy and require responsible transformation.
Orientation Theory
Orientation Theory provides the conceptual foundation.
It asks how orientation can be maintained when uncertainty cannot be eliminated. In this framework, planning is not treated as a search for perfect prediction. It is treated as a structured attempt to preserve agency while assumptions remain temporary and open to revision.