Landscapes of Repulsion: Hidden in Plain Site

Abstract

This thesis interrogates landscape architecture’s participation in the cleaning and concealing of repugnant sites of industry through the creation of fabricated mountains constructed from the wastes of Iowa’s booming commercial hog industry. The constructed mountains, dubbed the De Sotos, are proposed to be located just north of the town of Manson in northwest Iowa. These constructed megaforms are in constant negotiation between industry and nature, always changing and never complete, to reimagine the landscape’s relationship to active industry. The De Sotos are constructed over time as waste material is collected, processed, shaped, and, in some cases, planted. The mountain range is both a force of its own, shaped by the by-products of its natural and artificial processes, as well as being a product of consumption and construction. The mountains make visible the repulsions of this industry as an immeasurable force altering the land of Iowa and its value as a site of production.