Salt as a material cannot be defined and detected in urban or rural landscapes as easily as concrete or stone. However, salt is far more complicated to contextualize because it is not a construction material used in abundance.
Seeing salt or experiencing salt is more visible as a process or intervention and reaction of materials together. We see how salt turns ice into water and prevents our streets from freezing. We see salt mines, where saltwater evaporates through the exposure of thin layers of water to the sun, which is followed by amazing patterns and colors. As well, we see how living matter, the plants, either react well or even die through contact with salt. Additionally, we see salt, when it reacts with metal and this is what I would like to focus on. With salt, a patina can be created, one of a magnificent and colorful kind. This research chose to explore and document the process of reaction between salt and metals like copper, aluminum, and brass, which imposes a feel of disintegration, abandonment, neglection, and uncontrollability onto us. This tension can be highly interesting and this process and implemented material tension are how salt can be used as a design tool, to shape the materialities of cityscapes.
