As remnants of the Industrial Age, the London gas holders are a fascinating presence across the urban landscape, one which is on the verge of disappearing. The photographic essay Ruin or Rust portrays the uncanny structures as the backdrop of everyday life, capturing their relationship to the urban context. The result of a two-year-long endeavor, this personal project of London-based photographer Francesco Russo frames the dialogue between these elements of the cityscape and the life going on around them, investigating their role in contemporary society and the urban fabric.
Gas holders began dotting the British landscape in the 19th century and were used to store large volumes of coal gas up until 1965 when natural gas was discovered in the North Sea. The latter, combined with developments in gas distribution made gas holders obsolete, and 1999 marked the start of their dismantling process. The high land values and London's stringent housing shortage threaten the existence of these structures, as half of them have already been demolished and more are set to be taken apart soon.
With around twenty gas holders left in the Greater London area, only a few of them are set to be preserved as part of future developments. One great example of re-purposing these structures is the development in Kings Cross, where three of the gas holders have been remodeled into residential units, while a fourth one was transformed into a public green area. Similar plans are in place for the gas holders of Haggerston, Old Kent Road and Kennington. As Russo suggests, the gas holders have a high potential for community-oriented programs as well. The photographic project builds an argument for their reconsideration as a viable part of the urban fabric.
The project's name, Ruin or Rust, is a reference to a quote by Antoine Picon, professor of History of Architecture and Technology at HGSD. In his article Anxious landscapes: from the ruin to rust, he makes a commentary on the general dismissal of more recent architecture fallen into disrepair, in opposition to the reverence for historic ruins:
Why does rust frighten us so while the ruin is adorned with a reassuring character? [...] The ruin restores man to nature. Rust, on the other hand, confines him in the middle of his productions as if within a prison, a prison all the more terrible since he is its builder. In this context, the name of Russo's photographic project is an invitation to reconsider these structures from an architectural heritage point of view, prompting the public to ponder the question: Are they ruin or rust?
An architect by training, Russo holds a great interest in industrial architecture, not only for its aesthetic but for its potential to generate contemporary projects of greater social value. Russo is also the co-founder of Mass, a collective of architectural photographers in London, currently hosting a virtual reality exhibition, Mass Virtual Photography Gallery, as part of the London Festival of Architecture Digital.
