The Brazeau Collieries site is quite large and spread out over a significant area. Deserted, it feels spacious. But viewed from certain angles, the briquette processing plant and other nearby buildings appear stacked and compressed together, perhaps delivering some of the feel of the place when it was full of bustle and operating at capacity. The geometry of the processing plant area also illustrates the economy of design of many of the facilities, which were constructed with form very much supporting function, in many cases using the gravity of multi-stories and the hillside itself to minimize the power required to move the intermediate stages of the briquette products around. The heights now mainly provide a vantage point for the occasional pigeon or raven.
Working the Angles, Nordegg
Royce Howland Photography 