Increasing public engagement with the Lochaber Hydropower Scheme through sensory reduction and the moderation of speed.

The Lochaber Hydropower Scheme is a tunnel that runs from Loch Laggan to the Fort William aluminium smelter. Located in a cold environment with heavy rainfall, much of it gives in to being a place of passing through the A86 road. When visiting Laggan Dam, people stopped in the cold for no more than 5 minutes, leaving the dam a wasted opportunity for the appreciation of hydropower.

People aren’t the only things that pass – water passes too. The westside of the Scottish Watershed flows through Lochaber, with several burns and rivers changing their route to pass through the hydropower scheme. The west rivers are steeper and faster, linking humans and hydrology into a habit of constant speed.

The proposal aims to slow down the route of the people and the water in the hydropower scheme. Stretching parallel across Laggan Dam, The Walkway for Pausing will encourage public engagement by sensory reduction to sound. By creating a new environment that reduces the elements, the intervention becomes a spatial experience for simply being present. With materiality, form, and proximity, The Walkway for Pausing helps us acknowledge hydropower. Using rock that is broken down from the steep rivers, terrazzo water instruments divert the water’s path and sit on a steel frame to compliment the dam’s robust mass. Additionally, it is deconstructed with the dam as one, leaving a mark on the landscape as a monument for the possibilities of extractive activities.