The oil and oil-gas platforms, more than 8000 present all over the planet until a few decades ago, have gradually been dismantled to free the seas from the strong pollution they cause. The so-called decommissioning process of fixed platforms is usually carried out by removing them entirely from the marine environment in which they are located, bringing them to the ground and then demolishing or disassembling them to sell valuable equipment or, in some cases, revamping the best pieces for later reuse in other fields.
As offshore settlements these kinds of structures, due to their strong visual and evocative impact, constitute an excellent example of industrial archeology in any sense which, however, only in rare cases have been known to be converted into spaces of civil architecture as artificial islands.
Despite the environmental political conflicts that they constitute nowadays, it is undeniable that from an architectural landscape point of view they have a great visual strength and constitute a kind of punctual exaltation of the horizon line.
One of the biggest problems caused by the dismantling of these structures is the costs. Recent studies have validated that a re-use and redevelopment are much cheaper than, for example, a completely new construction and partly even more economical in reference to the resale of disassembled parts.
