The Bakken

The Bakken

Exploring the nature of oil drilling in Western North Dakota

Excessiveness:• Many of the processes that are used to extract oil create a lot of waste.

• Raw natural gas is also found where oil is drilled, but with the lack of a pipeline or other means of transporting it somewhere it can be used, it is flared as waste or burnt off.

• Smaller cars and older vehicles have become a rarity in this part of the state.

• Nearly everyone who works in the oil rig owns a large truck that has been bought in the past 5 years.

Economical Buildings• Despite the excessive nature of the oil drilling, much

of the built environment is done cheaply, efficiently, and is made to be disassembled or moved.

• No effort is made to enhance aesthetics or the human experience.

Scale• Many of the structures relating to the oil drilling in the basin

are at a larger scale than what we are accustomed to on the Eastern side of ND.

• Equipment and buildings are built at a scale relating to oil drilling as a first priority while the human scale comes second

Case Study

Pusan, South Korea: Pusan Speed Rail Station

Expression With Steel Structure

• It is constructed of standardized components so that much of it can be assembled off-site in prefabricated sections

• The flowing roof forms evoke the idea of movement and speed – well suited for a speed rail station