The abandoned rurality: memories of place redeemed through radical preservation

Based on seven cycles of implemented transformations of abandoned buildings prototyped at full scale in various rural villages in Denmark, this paper argues that the abandoned houses act as the material anchorage points of an interwoven mesh of collective memories that form part of the community cohesion. Some of these prototyped transformations included an integrated ruination process and age-long timespan, whereas others were event-based and terminated with the demolition immediately after the transformation. As a whole, the series of transformations constitute an on-going counter-practice of radical preservation. It aims at preserving the contested buildings of rural everyday life in cooperation with rural municipalities and residents.