Across the twentieth century, the landscapes of many European regions, such as the Ruhr Valley in Germany; the South Wales Valleys in the UK; Wallonia in Belgium; and Upper Silesia in Poland, were fundamentally shaped by coal extraction. However, coal was more than just an energy source. As extraction intensified, it became amulti-dimensional modernist project. Across Europe, coal mining became the epicentre of technological optimism, democratic politics, urban regeneration, and mass communication as its architecture wasredefined as symbols and sites of progress, welfare state ambition and conduits for the reorganisation of everyday life. While the world is preparing for a complete cessation of coal extraction and a post-carbon society, there is a need to critically examine the socio-spatial impacts of coal extraction, many of which are now forgotten, demolished, or hidden in plain sight.

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Building on aspects of the European Research Council (ERC) project Architectures of Coal in Modern Europe (ACME), the Holobiont Design Research Studio (DRS), at University College Dublin (UCD) –c omposed of Year 1 and Year 2 Master of Architecture students – engaged with the South Wales Valleys as a post-extractive landscape of global-local energy entanglements. Over the 2025–2026 academicy ear, the studio developed a post-coal Faniffesto (Welsh for Manifesto) for this territory.

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Functioning as both analytical tool and propositional framework, the Faniffesto emerged through examinations and design speculations on food production, mobility and logistics, energy systems, and other domains that might re-programme the South Wales Valleys. It articulates regenerative, socially equitable, and ethical visions – a contract with the future that challenges existing perspectives and proposes new architectural manifestations for coal’s afterlife.  

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The work is grounded in the concept of the holobiont. Borrowed from mycology and popularised by figures like Merlin Sheldrake, holobiont describes a collection of species so closely connected that they operate as a single organic entity. This ethos aligns with James Lovelock’s Gaia theory and Bruno Latour’s call to rediscover the “terrestrial”, widening our perspective beyond the narrow focus of the modern condition. The Holobiont DRS adopts this position as both ethos and method. Within this, we use drawing as a primary mode of thinking to make the intangible tangible, mapping invisible networks of energy flows, social behaviours, and ecosystems across micro, meso, and macro scales, positioning architecture as a field that exists both within andbeyond building.  

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The book is structured through three interconnected themes: Ecology+ Resilience, Mobility + Connectivity, and Identity +Culture, weaving together research, mapping and speculativedesign which serves as a testing ground for a regenerative,post-carbon future.