Unfinished business: Iagttagelser af Holmegaard Glasværk i et samtidsarkæologisk perspektiv

Holmegaard Glassworks shut down in 2012 and was abandoned from one day to the next. Since then, the uninhibited building has been subject to studies with a contemporary archaeological focus because of its unexplored nature as a ruin. The aim of this article is also to explore that desolate place in Fensmark on southern Zealand. The material culture in derelict places such as Holmegaard Glassworks is submitted to continuous transformation as natural elements and human interactions affect the spatial and sensual environment. Therefore, we believe that an archaeological investigation of the present invokes methodological approaches different from those used in conventional archaeology-a more sensory, experiencing and subjective methodology. In this respect, we apply a bifurcated approach: a hands-on and a secondhand experience. We use these different perspectives as our methodological basis with emphasis on the individual experience. It is a challenging and alternative approach towards the conceptualising of a fascinating present-day ruin with all its objects, rooms and corners that seem both strange and well known. However, we appeal to this sensory approach rooted in the phenomenological method in the exploration of multiple and perhaps contrasting materialities. Furthermore, we wish to present the term unfinished as a central concept in the understanding and interpretation of degraded buildings. The unfinished as a concept summarises our experiences of Holmegaard Glasworks as well as contemporary archaeology in general.