CONCLUSION

In the words of Winny Maas: ‘What’s next?’. How do we depart from here, and transform what is a complicated manufactured site and reclaim the landscape, built environment and the material remnants? Hein has suggested that next to the historical analysis we look at potential new energy sources. Jackson has clarified the protocols that need to be enacted such as a sampling plan, a planting plan and a net environmental benefit analysis. It seems that the remainder of the work is determined by an integral approach where the landscape is remediated, the buildings reused as much as possible, and that materials be recycled. Yet, solving the spatial aspects won’t be sufficient. Just as the oil industry has dominated our perception through the representational field, the solution must be returned in the kind. Hein’s representational field provides a potential antidote if it is used to spread the message of the evocative post-oil ruin, so that we may reclaim it.

Reflections

Further readings, would include Growth in a Changing Environment: A History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) 1950-1972 and Exxon Corporation (1972-1975) by Bennett Wall. As this would have likely expanded my knowledge on the period after the 1950s, this has now largely been done through the perspective of Bowen, who describes the developments through the lens of the Colony. Another book which I was unable to acquire was The Lago Story: The compelling Story of an oil Company on the island of Aruba written by Jorge Ridderstraat, who describes the whole history of the refinery told through the lens of Aruba’s history. Another book, Bioremediation and Sustainability: Research in applications by Romeela Mohee and Ackmez Mudhhoo provide more technical approaches to bioremediation and provide an analysis on the pro’s and con’s of the different approaches. Lastly the book Buildings must Die: A perverse view of Architecture by Stephen Cairns and Jane M. Jacobs examines topics such as Decay, Obsolescence, Ruin and Ecological horizons, all of which could have expanded the research. The first two, have been requested from foreign libraries, although this seems unlikely at the moment. The intention is to use them for the continuation of the graduation project.

Bibliography

Attwood, H. (n.d.). The Island of Aruba: Information of Interest to Prospective Employees and Visitors. New York City: Lago Oil and Transport Company, Limited.

Aymer, P. L. (1997). Uprooted women: migrant domestics in the Caribbean. Westport, CT: Praeger.

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Bowen, D. S. (2018). In the shadow of the refinery: an American oil company town on the Caribbean island of Aruba. Journal of Cultural Geography, 36(1), 49–77. doi: 10.1080/08873631.2018.1502398

Brown, J. (1985). Why Foreign Oil Companies Shifted Their Production from Mexico to Venezuela during the 1920s. The American Historical Review, 90(2), 362-385. doi:10.2307/1852670

Clô Alberto. (2010). Oil Economics and Policy. Boston, MA: Kluwer.

Davis, M. L. (2001). Dark side of fortune: triumph and scandal in the life of oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Fernández Per Aurora, Mozas Lérida, Javier, & Arpa, Javier. (2012). Reclaim: remediate reuse recycle. Vitoria: A T architecture.