It’s not just the morbid and macabre horror movie ambiance of abandoned psychiatric facilities that makes them so haunting and fascinating; it’s the shadows of the people who often lived their entire lives there. Toothbrushes hanging on hooks, bedding still wadded on cots, wheelchairs and patient records are stark reminders of the humanity that once existed between these walls. Photographer Jeremy Harris has documented many of the structures still standing in a series called ‘Abandoned American Asylums: The Moral Architecture of the Nineteenth Century.’

Harris has been sneaking into abandoned asylums since 2005 to take his photos. The series includes just about everything you’d expect: peeling paint, foreboding hallways and a whole lot of rusting metal. But there are also faded murals, grand theaters and bowling alleys.

In the 19th century, a large number of people – whether seriously mentally ill or not – were institutionalized against their will, often left in hospitals their entire lives without visits from family. At the time, mental illness was often thought of as a moral or spiritual failing. Circumstances improved by the 20th century, in most facilities.

Mother Jones produced a video about the photo project. You can also read more about early psychiatric hospitals and asylums at the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and see the rest of the photos at Jeremy Harris’ website.

Occupying an abandoned five-story apartment building in central Taipei, Ruin Academy is a living architectural laboratory where holes drilled in the walls let rain inside, plants grow from the floors and the bones of the structure serve as ‘compost’ for the future of the city. A collaboration between Finland-based Casagrande Laboratory and the Taiwanese JUT Foundation for Arts & Architecture, this project aims to “re-think the industrial city and the modern man in a box.”

Ruin Academy serves as a setting for workshops and courses for various Taiwanese and international universities in subjects like architecture, urban design and environmental art. The lines between the city and the building have been blurred with the removal of windows and interior walls, so bamboo and vegetables can be grown indoors. Students and professors sleep in ad-hoc dormitories. The mahogany elements of the interiors, like walkways and steps, are made to be rearranged as the inhabitants’ needs change.

“The Ruin Academy is looking at the ruining processes of Taipei that keep the city alive,” says Marco Casagrande on the Ruin Academy blog. The idea is that static urban structures aren’t a natural way of life, and that the ‘Third Generation City’ would mix nature with human construction in an ever-changing symbiosis. Restoring nature within cities, growing food indoors, and living in structures that constantly adapt and change is seen as a more organic way for humans to interact with our environment.

The Ruin Academy is just one of the many illegal, unsanctioned ‘parasite’ structures that have popped up on top of and around Taipei’s conventional modern buildings. Organic and often transient structures made of materials like bamboo or plastic sheeting sprout on the roofs of concrete skyscrapers and in abandoned lots, used as artist housing, urban farms, night markets and other social gathering places.

An abandoned power station that has been an iconic part of London’s skyline since 1933 is transformed into a playground and museum in the “Architectural Ride London” proposal by Atelier Zündel Cristea. The concept makes use of the Battersea Power Station, which was decommissioned in 1983, preserving its history while making it both an educational and recreational attraction.

The former coal-fired power station (which has been featured in a number of films and music videos) is notable for its original Art Deco interior fittings and decor, but throughout the thirty years of its abandonment, its condition has deteriorated severely. Former owners considered making the station an indoor theme park in the 1987, and work began on converting the site, but lack of funding brought the project to a halt.

The new proposal revives this idea, making it even more grand with a roller coaster that winds around the building itself, making it the center of attention during the ride. Paths created by the scaffolding-like support of the roller coaster offer opportunities for walking tours. The design took first prize in the ArchTriumph Museum of Architecture competition.

“Our project puts the power station on centre stage, the structure itself enhancing the site through its impressive scale, its architecture, and its unique brick material. Our created pathway links together a number of spaces for discovery: the square in front of the museum, clearings, footpaths outside and above and inside, footpaths traversing courtyards and exhibition rooms. The angles and perspectives created by the rail’s pathway, through the movement within and outside of the structure, place visitors in a position where they can perceive simultaneously the container and its contents, the work and nature. They come to participate in several simultaneous experiences: enjoying the displayed works, being moved by the beauty of the structure and the city: river, park, buildings.”

Rusted sea forts, top-secret submarine bases, sprawling military hospital complexes and entire islands still stand as silent reminders of wars long past, from Ukraine to New York’s Hudson River. These seven monumental wonders of abandoned military architecture are steeped in history, often still littered with decommissioned aircraft and pieces of weaponry.

RAF Stenigot, England

(images via: urban spaceman)

Massive, alien-looking radar dishes litter the landscape at RAF Stenigot, a World War II-era radar station in Lincolnshire, England. Part of the Chain Home radar network, which was intended to provide long range early warning for raids, the site continued to serve for other communication purposes after the war and was decommissioned in 1980. Most of it was demolished by 1996, but four tropospheric scatter dishes still remain, along with a few other structures.

Russian Island Base in the Sea of Japan

(images via: english russia)

A small horseshoe-shaped island in the Sea of Japan that was once the setting of a war over its gold resources, Askold has been abandoned for decades. In 1892, the Headquarters of the Vladivostok Fortress created a permanent observation post there, and it became a point of tension between Russia and Japan. The island is cluttered with the remains of what little was built or left behind – the base of a long-gone pier, derelict lighthouses, rusted artillery, a power station, a command post, barracks and a handful of vehicles.

The island has never been inhabited, and is rarely visited by tourists due to the difficulty of reaching it from the mainland. Unused since World War II, much of the infrastructure has crumbled, and one part of the island is now inaccessible after the collapse of a bridge. Though it was once a place of war, Askold is now remarkably peaceful – and still, incidentally, full of gold.

Beelitz Heilstätten Military Hospital, Berlin

(images via: arcanum, studiospecialplace, 28dayslater)

This beautiful abandoned 19th century sanitarium complex located in Beelitz, just outside Berlin, was used by the Germans as a military hospital through the second World War and then occupied by the Russians for the same purpose until 1995, well after the German reunification. It was abandoned altogether in 2000. Surrounded by pine woods, the hospital complex consists of about 60 buildings including a surgery, psychiatric ward and rifle range. Its most infamous patient is none other than Adolf Hitler, who recuperated there after an injury sustained in World War I in 1916.

Some of the buildings have been painstakingly restored by a German preservation group, but most of them are left to ruin. It’s a popular destination for urban explorers in the area, but of course, not everyone goes there just to enjoy the bittersweet beauty of such an ornate decaying complex. In 2008, a photographer lured a model to the abandoned operating theater for a photo shoot, and murdered her. Its dark history also includes a period before it was abandoned when a serial killer known as The Beast of Beelitz began to terrorize local women connected to the sanatorium, strangling them with pink lingerie.

People who live in or near the restored buildings do so with caution. Local architect Michael Wetzlaugk bought and converted one of the outbuildings to live with his family, but stresses that he and his son are accomplished marshal artists with a collection of exotic weapons.

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7 Abandoned Wonders Of Military Architecture

Half the fun of exploring abandoned places is the hunt – stumbling upon obscure sites, or determining the precise location of better-known ones with a collection of vague clues from previous urban explorers. It’s not a great idea to have hordes of curious people descending upon crumbling ruins and dilapidated structures for obvious reasons, ranging from trespassing laws to dangerous conditions. But for abandoned places aficionados who’d rather cut to the chase, the ‘Abandoned’ iPhone app by THE FORM pinpoints locations on a map.

The community-based app relies on user input to determine where abandoned sites are located. And beyond mere maps, the app allows you to post photos and stories of your own adventures. Not only does this help fill out the lore of interesting places, it can help people avoid dangerous areas or give precise instructions for easy access.

GPS mapping automatically locates and displays abandoned sites near you, and you can store a private log of your own locations if you don’t want to share with others. Rate sites from one to five stars, share your comments and contribute to locations submitted by others.

Urban exploration has long relied upon word-of-mouth. In many cases, people in the know share information about certain sites only with others who can be trusted not to damage the site, call attention to themselves, or take risks that could result in injuries. For that reason, this app might receive mixed response from dedicated urban explorers, and those interested in keeping certain sites secret from the public at large. But on the other hand, a lot of abandoned sites are in serious need of attention, and the sooner they’re saved, the more of their history can be preserved. Get it at iTunes.

via Pop Up City; top image via nocturne