The Autumn Show Book 2023

The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

Is it possible to reframe the practice of design as an intricate negotiation with existing constituencies, institutions and topographies? Can we conceptualise the process of design as a prolonged engagement with existing cycles – nocturnal and diurnal, seasonal, everyday habits or enculturated practices – rather than an isolated act of making?

Can designers become more attuned to the material ecologies they engage – understanding the labour practices that underwrite material choices, the environmental impact of transporting and sustaining those materials on site, the consequences of material extraction and the perpetuation of non-renewable material streams? How can designers proactively prepare to contribute to a more racially, socially and environmentally just built environment?

These are some of the complex questions that the students in the Architecture & Historic Urban Environments and Landscape Architecture Master’s programmes at The Bartlett are grappling with. Both programmes engage environmentally and culturally loaded sites, foregrounding analysis as a creative practice capable of bringing previously intangible dynamics to visibility. Both frame human and non-human occupation of such sites as forms of stewardship, prioritising the longevity of an ethos of care over the brevity of individual ownership. Both design from a planetary perspective, viewing sites as a nexus of complex and extensive histories that demand multi-scalar solutions.

In a collection of essays published in 1969 entitled The LongLegged House, cultural critic and environmental activist Wendell Berry observed:

‘We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.’

The titular long-legged house refers to a log house built by Berry’s great-great-grandfather, disassembled by his great-uncle and refashioned into a camp. When the camp became uninhabitable, Berry himself reused the poplar and walnut to create a ‘satisfactory nutshell of a house.’ This ethos of stewardship, care and material reuse permeates the work of students in both programmes, as does the commitment to knowing the world and learning what is good for it.

The projects in The Bartlett Autumn Show 2023 attest to this commitment. On behalf of the school, I would like to thank all the students, staff, alumni and industry partners who, together with an extended network of families and friends across the world, have worked so hard to make the show and this book a reality. To the students who worked so diligently to bring to fruition the projects displayed in this book, thank you for showing all of us that what is good for the world will be good for us.

Amy Kulper Director of The Bartlett School of Architecture

Architecture

& Historic Urban Environments MA field trip, 2023.

Photos: Canyang Cheng

Architecture & Historic Urban Environments

MA

Architecture & Historic Urban Environments MA

Programme Director: Edward Denison

We are living in a time of planetary crisis and transformation. A century of unprecedented population growth, urbanisation and migration has imposed unsustainable pressures on the planet and heralded an entirely new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. Whether working in ancient cities or ultra-modern metropolises, the greatest challenge facing built environment professionals in the future will be adapting and improving what already exists, not building anew.

Rising to the challenge, this multidisciplinary programme promotes a fresh and rigorous approach to the city in the 21st century. Focusing on the themes of environmental, racial and spatial equity, students are encouraged to engage critically and creatively at any scale and through diverse creative media to re-evaluate, reimagine and restore historic urban environments, making them more resilient, equitable and sustainable.

Working alongside design tutors, historians and researchers with unique global experiences and diverse perspectives, students examine cities from around the world, using London as an outstanding laboratory for learning. The work presented in the Autumn Show is a selection of the final projects which build on the knowledge and experience gained throughout the year in a combination of core and elective modules. These include wide-ranging thematic lectures from guest speakers, site visits to a variety of buildings and landscapes, and specific skills workshops, such as 3D scanning and model making. With the world-renowned Survey of London team, students learn the processes of urban surveying, recording, mapping and analysis, alongside strategies and key issues concerning urban and cultural heritage.

In conjunction with developing a robust theoretical and practical understanding of different sites and analytical methods, students are encouraged to become tomorrow’s leaders in the built environment professions, thinking critically and working creatively to cultivate their own mode of practice that seeks to realise a better future built on the past.

Students

Amirul Abyyusa, Nassima Chahboun, Nuo Chen, Canyang Cheng, Mustafa

Anil Erkan, Fanyu Gao, Diego Grisaleña Albeniz, Layla Hasan, Yanping (Pyper) He, Aishwarya

Jaideep Jamkhedkar, Ruoxi Jin, Yingyi Liu, Deepika Madhava, Suhela Maini, Rebecca Markus, Kharisma Maulida, Shuyu Ni, Anna Nuzhdina, Matthias Palla, Muyun Qiu, Victoria Rosenborg-Minos, Dorna Shafieioun, Yingchun (Juliette) Song, Miao Wang, Chia-Yu (Erika) Wei, Hip Chi (Gianetta)

Wong, Hongze Xu, Yuyao Zhang, Yunuo Zheng

Tutors

Karen Averby, BarbaraAnn Campbell-Lange, Colin Thom, Edward Denison, Ievgeniia Gubkina, Emily Mann, Maxwell Mutanda, Thomas Parker, Rebecca Preston, Lakshmi Priya Rajendran, Aileen Reid, Jane Wong

Teaching Assistants

Yahia Ahmed, Jhono Bennett

Supervisors

Peter Bishop, Jonathan Kendall, Guang Yu Ren, Shahed Saleem, Rosamund West

Skills Tutor

Danielle Purkiss

Image: Architecture & Historic Urban Environments MA field trip, 2023. Photo: Matthias Palla

1.1, 1.6 Yanping (Pyper) He ‘A “Scattered” Home: For Beijing’s Migrant Cleaners’. This project explores the role of architecture in enhancing the lives of migrant cleaners in Beijing, who face precarious living conditions and an uncertain future in the context of Beijing’s ongoing urban restructuring. It also raises public awareness about the inequalities experienced by this marginalised group and sheds light on their challenges.

1.2–1.4 Muyun Qiu ‘Clothing London’s Early Victorian Terraces for Climate Emergency’. The project addresses the current irreconcilability between environmental design practice and heritage conservation concerns through a series of speculative ‘what if’ scenarios to inspire discussions between all parties concerned with the retrofitting of London’s historical terraces.

1.5 Canyang Cheng ‘Manufactured Identity’. In the ever-changing landscape of China, the concept of identity has undergone a profound transformation. This project explores the intricate evolution of identity, focusing on industrial identity within the Chinese context, using Shijiazhuang, the most populous city of China’s Hebei Province, as a case study. The exploration delves into the multifaceted nature of identity, shaped by economic, political and societal dynamics, and discovers its crucial role in understanding China’s socio-cultural fabric.

1.7 Chia-Yu (Erika) Wei ‘Make Yourself at Home’. This comprehensive investigation looks into the multifaceted contributions of London’s garden squares and explores how urban comfort can be enhanced within the framework of the city’s greening initiatives in the built environment.

1.8 Mustafa Anil Erkan ‘Özgür: Delineating an Anatolian Village’. The project addresses Turkey’s ongoing identity crisis. In doing so, it explores the the incomplete educational reforms of the early days of the Turkish Republic and finds answers in an educated Anatolian village called Güzelsu. The project delineates the term ‘modern’ as a way of thinking, matching this notion with socialisation and feelings of independence.

1.9 Victoria Rosenborg-Minos ‘The Balance of Contrasts’. An analysis of the relationship between architecture, culture politics, space, aesthetics, history and resistance that shapes the Norwegian built environment. As the movement known as Architectural Uprising ripples across communities, demonstrating the importance of individual points of view, this project encourages increased research into the built environment through diverse interactions, actual conversations and deep dives into collective memory often dismissed as history.

1.10–1.11 Yingchun (Juliette) Song ‘Divergent (Im)Mobilities: Experiencing the Situated Double Consciousness of (Im)Migrants in London’. This project is situated in Stratford – an area in London populated by immigrants following the post-2012 Olympic development plans. Using site-writing, mapping, archival research, photo documentation, sketching and overheard conversations, this project addresses situatedness, double consciousness, positionality and (im)mobilities.

1.12 Layla Hasan ‘Towards a National Archive of the Built Environment’. The project is constructed as a response to the absence of archival institutions with holdings related to the built environment of Bahrain, and formulates an argument for building a national archive with a wider aim of preservation. By analysing the potential cultural, urban and economic impact that archiving could have, this research adopts proposalmaking as a method and puts forward a strategy that can be implemented as an intervention.

1.13 Nuo Chen ‘No More Hidden Faces’. Despite prevailing negative social attitudes towards homelessness and rough sleepers, the redeveloped King’s Cross area strives to achieve a balance between revitalisation and the inclusion of marginalised groups. Recognising the unmet needs of the rough sleepers, the design introduces innovative support stations that improve their living conditions while promoting inclusivity. This ambitious spatial design vision aims to promote a compassionate cityscape where all people feel valued and included.

1.14 Nassima Chahboun ‘The Side Effects of World Heritage Status: A Critical Re-Exploration of the Medina of Fez’. This design-based study critically examines the prevailing paradigm of world heritage preservation, focusing on its potential adverse effects on inhabited cities. The Moroccan World Heritage Site of Fez is a case study. By scrutinising the negative consequences of the heritagisation of Fez, the project seeks to explore the possibility of an alternative approach that balances historical preservation with urban change and development.

The Double Entendre of the Covered Truth: The Transitional Concept of Iranian Art in Accordance with the Woman, Life, Freedom Movement

Dorna Shafieioun

Supervisor: Rosamund West

The phrase ‘self, home and city’ represents the intricate dynamic between individuals, their families and wider society. These concepts are deeply intertwined, yet their meanings and relationships can vary significantly. The Women, Life, Freedom movement has sparked a multifaceted shift on social, cultural and political fronts, effectively dismantling the traditional boundaries that once prevailed. Within this transformative backdrop, the notion of everyday resistance has emerged, manifesting itself across various Iranian cities. Women from diverse backgrounds and age groups now occupy the public sphere wearing attire more aligned with their personal choices. Performed in a manner that doesn’t necessarily involve overt protests, this subtle

mode of resistance is an evolving art form, responding to shifting environments with the potential to gradually reshape society.

The research begins by studying traditional Iranian architecture, an illuminating portal to the conventional mindset that once defined Iran. This thesis then explores the evolution of artistic concepts, using this as a lens to comprehend the intricate sociocultural shifts unfolding in contemporary Iran. Subsequently, it delves into the narratives of 11 Iranian women who have experienced these transformations first hand during the Women, Life, Freedom movement. Employing the innovative design of an exhibition as a research tool, the narratives of these women are artfully presented within a small space in London. This format enables the transcendence of geographical boundaries, fostering a dialogue with a broader global audience. This interactive platform facilitates an exploration of how the concepts of self, home and city have changed through the act of everyday resistance.

Image: Headscarves, 2023. Image by the author

Beyond the Drop-Off and Promo Codes: An Exploration of Potentialities for a Digitally Mediated Participative Method in Shopping Mall Adaptations in South Jakarta

Amirul Abyyusa

Supervisor: Peter Bishop

This thesis focuses on South Jakarta, the Indonesian city with the largest number of shopping malls within its administrative border, despite the fact it is not the largest city in Greater Jakarta. South Jakarta is also the catchment priority for the first Mass Rapid Transit development from Lebak Bulus to Bundaran Hotel Indonesia. The city is well known for its cultural, creative and urban leisure hotspots such as Kemang, Blok M and Kebayoran Baru. Moreover, according to research carried out in 2020–2021, South Jakarta is the preferred city for housing among Greater Jakarta and the surrounding cities such as Tangerang, South Tangerang, Depok and Bekasi. It was also the city with the highest expenditure rate in 2022.

Over the last decade in Indonesia, the internet has changed the shopping landscape due to the rapid development of e-commerce and digital platforms. This shift has required shopping malls to adapt to the changing circumstances and compete with the emergence of other retail options. Additionally, shopping malls have recently experienced a devastating decline in footfall due to Covid-19 restrictions. While some larger enterprises have managed to recover from the crisis, smaller less popular shopping malls are still struggling to survive.

Based on the issues outlined above, this thesis examines the relationship between South Jakarta’s shopping malls and their broader development backgrounds, changing shopping cultures and the dynamics of the surrounding ecosystem, representing the urban vernacular and temporalities of Indonesian cities. The thesis explores potentialities as well as experimenting with how digital mediums can anticipate the issues that shopping malls have inherited from the past and experienced recently to contribute to a better urban landscape for Jakarta.

Image: Mall Blok M Section, 2023. Image by the author

Repositioning the Local: Storytelling as a Tool for Place-Making at the Kumbh Mela Aishwarya Jaideep Jamkhedkar

Supervisor: Lakshmi Priya Rajendran

Cities are the cradle of civilisation, culture and innovation. Narratives whether oral, written or illustrated can shape the identity of a place. The project uses mapping as a storytelling tool to depict the diverse realities of the Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj, India. Widely known as the ‘tent city’ due to its temporal character, this religious gathering attracted almost 200 million domestic and international visitors in 2019. This thesis uses countermapping methods to reposition the festival beyond its portrayal as a temporal city to a potential thirdspace within the urban realm. The project views the presence of tents as urban rooms which facilitate contemporary conversations as well as mythological and religious stories. Thus, the images produced are not only to be consumed but to be engaged with. The project moves beyond the universal orthogonal representation of the area and focuses on the narrative function of drawings and other visual media.

Many contemporary practices use counter-mapping as a storytelling technique to challenge dominating narratives. Historically, artists have resorted to allegorical paintings and pictorial cartography to depict architectural and urban environments. With the expansion of the European empire, the cartographic traditions of the West were applied to their colonised territories, limiting the representation of cities to their physical contours. Thus, the evolution of cartography in the Indian subcontinent has not been linear. Today, most of the indigenous forms of mapping are either reduced to wall hangings or museum artefacts. Native forms of mapping were not limited to only the physical nature of places but also depicted everyday life and spatial practices. Mapping is a political exercise. It is an art of abstraction used to represent territorial control and shape public narratives. This thesis questions the purpose of mapping as a tool to mirror reality rather than to actualise potential within the existing constraints.

Image: Mapping Spatial Cultures at the Kumbh, 2023. Image by the author

Deepika Madhava

The founders of a modern, post-independence India set out examples of how a forwardthinking society and its buildings should look. The rest lay in the past. Growing urbanism only seemed to erase the historical buildings and ideas of yesteryear as planners and designers built on a fresh canvas. The challenge was to design domestic spaces for a society strongly rooted in its traditional practices, balanced with an even stronger aspiration to embrace Western modernity. This fed into discussions on identities, territories and histories. To explore the dilemma, this thesis looks beyond the discipline of architecture and raises issues and questions such as:

Why do we know so little about our land beyond myths and legends? Were our written histories unimportant or did none exist?

Are the only histories worth mentioning made up of the material remains of a

prosperous dynasty, records of a bloody battle, stories of mighty kings and large unified cultural civilisations?

How can we look at our land and its spaces – the ones that exist and the ones that are invisible, the constant and the ephemeral, the physical and the mythical, the visual and the sensory – from a non-comparative perspective?

How do we negotiate this space, with its complex socio-cultural practices and historical living traditions, in a globalised world with modern ambitions?

The research redefines the lens through which the histories of the coastal districts of Karnataka and Kasaragod are viewed. This is achieved by studying archival human documents, travelogue texts, cartographies and visual materials to reveal blind spots in dominant narratives and critically interpret them with a local gaze. The output is a repository platform with a non-linear framework for narrating historical global and regional ties, presenting living heritages to an inquisitive local or presumptuous traveller.

Multiplicities of the Margin

Supervisor: Jane Wong

Image: Postcards, 2023. Image by the author

Landscape Choreographies, 2023.

Image: Ana Garrido Chavez, Design Studio 8

Landscape Architecture MA/MLA

Landscape Architecture MA/MLA

Programme Directors: Laura Allen, Mark Smout

The professionally accredited Landscape Architecture MA and MLA programmes at The Bartlett School of Architecture equip students with critical, interdisciplinary knowledge and design skills to work directly at the interface of today’s urgent ecological, infrastructural and social challenges. Faced with our current climate emergency, these programmes respond to the increasing need to work across built and natural environments. Our students develop unique skills in research, technical and ecological knowledge, strategic thinking and inventive design. They produce innovative responses to design briefs that support sustainability and deal with real-world challenges, such as biodiversity loss, climate change and ecological crisis.

Shown here are the seven Landscape Architecture design studios, all staffed by landscape practitioners, architects, urban designers and academics with distinct agendas. The design studio is central to both the Landscape Architecture MA and MLA degree programmes, providing fundamental and specialised knowledge and a strong identity from which students develop and launch their own approach to the contemporary study of landscape architecture. The studios offer a wide array of methodologies, encouraging independent research and imaginative design solutions for addressing critical subjects within a global context.

This year, students were introduced to a variety of ways of understanding and approaching landscape design in both the studio and the field with study trips to Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and other UK and European sites. Within these contexts, the questions, methods and sites addressed by each studio were broad and varied, highlighting a range of approaches from which to respond to today’s challenges and propose alternative futures. Themes include how we may retrofit our cities in the face of the climate crisis, the use of feral practices to co-create landscapes alongside natural ecosystems and how landscape may interplay with the future of human-built infrastructure to mention just a few. The interests of the seven studios reflect the breadth and depth of Landscape Architecture’s spatial and intellectual focus here at The Bartlett.

Design teaching is delivered in an interconnected curriculum side-by-side with history and theory, practice, and environmental and technical teaching. Each of these modules allow students to develop a unique and critical approach to the practice of Landscape Architecture, championing innovation within their research and design thinking. Also presented here are excerpts of work from the Landscape Thesis module and Environment and Technology modules. As we say our goodbyes to our MA and graduating MLA cohort, we have already embarked on a new year of Landscape Architecture at The Bartlett and look forward to enriching the community from our new home dedicated to Landscape studies in Wicklow Street.

Year Coordinators

Tom Budd, Aisling

O’Carroll, Diana Salazar

Design Studio Tutors

Richard Beckett, Laurence

Blackwell-Thale, Tom

Budd, Matthew Butcher, Alberto Campagnoli, Tiffany Dang, Pete Davies, Günther Galligioni, Christina Leigh Geros, Cannon Ivers, Katya

Larina, Alexandru

Malaescu, Doug John

Miller, Lyn Poon

History & Theory Coordinators

Tom Keeley, Tim Waterman

Environment & Technology Coordinator

Ana Abram

Practice Coordinator

Kelly Doran

Skills & Workshops Coordinator

Maj Plemenitas

Senior Programme Administrator

Zoe Lau

Admissions Tutor

Sandra Youkhana

Departmental Tutor

Henrietta Williams

Postgraduate Departmental Tutor, International

Guang Yu Ren

Post Graduate Teaching Assistants

Chia Yi Chou, Xiuzheng Li, Duy Mac, Oscar Maguire

Image: ‘Winspit’s Nomadic Nursery’, Yuelin Liu, Design Studio 5

Retrofit City

Cannon Ivers, Alexandru Malaescu

Design Studio 2

‘When future generations look back upon the Great Derangement they will certainly blame the leaders and politicians of this time for their failure to address the climate crisis. But they may well hold [designers,] artists and writers to be equally culpable – for the imagining of possibilities is not, after all, the job of politicians and bureaucrats.’

Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement

What is the agency of the landscape architect when we consider the ‘imagining of possibilities’ for our cities, streets and spaces as we collectively confront the challenge of the climate crisis? Design Studio 2 explores this question and the urban condition through the lens of Guy Debord’s concept of the dérive to read and understand the city of today so we can imagine new possibilities for the Retrofit City of the future. Dérive, usually translated from French as ‘to drift’, is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, in which participants drop their everyday relations and ‘let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there’.1 Our studio pursues speculative scenarios for existing streets, parks, squares, green spaces, fragments and edges that often underperform in the city, particularly in the face of a changing climate where absorptive, living and sequestering landscapes will be increasingly important. Biodiversity and ecology will be a new form of currency; as Richard Weller writes, ‘As they do with culture, cities will soon compete to be the most biodiverse.’ 2

Retrofitting buildings is often discussed as a method to reduce the impact of the construction industry on the climate crisis and aid in our collective progress towards net zero by limiting the number of new buildings, but retrofitting the city is rarely considered. What could our cities look like and how could they perform if retrofitted to privilege live matter, living systems, absorptive surfaces, alternative substrates and optimised conditions for non-humans? What if those forgotten fragments of streets, spaces and cities were retrofitted to create new habitats, social spaces or Miyawaki micro-forests? As we collectively work to counter the effects of the Anthropocene, could we work with ecological systems to move towards the Symbiocene, a new epoch marked by the symbiosis between the systems of the city and the systems of the living world? As urbanist Sarah Ichioka and architect Michael Pawlyn put it, ‘rather than referring to “the environment”, which implies something abstract for which humans are separate, it is more consistent with regenerative thinking to refer to “the living world”’. 3

Students

MLA Year 1

Mahtab Hajikarimian, Radhika Maheshwari, Victoria Ondrusek, Yue Tong (Mandy) Wan, Yun Wang, Ruichao Yang, Akito Yoshinaka

MLA Year 2

Shoshan Dagan, Zheng

Gao, Han-Tse Lee, Xinyu Su, Tatiana Vera Espinosa MA

Amy Marsden, Holly Roth

Practice Tutor

Paul Bourel

1. Guy Debord (2006), Theory of the dérive (Ken Knabb, Trans.) Situationist International Anthology No copyright. Original work published 1959

2. Jared Green (2022), ‘Earth Day Interview with Richard Weller: A Hopeful Vision for Global Conservation’, The Dirt, 18 April. Available at https://dirt. asla.org/2022/04/18/ earth-day-interviewwith-richard-weller-abold-vision-for-globalconservation.

3. Sarah Ichioka and Michael Pawlyn (2021) Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, Triarchy Press.

2.1, 2.13–2.14 Ruichao Yang ‘Camden Sky Farm’. Camden Town faces challenges from commercialisation and tourism which have eroded its sense of community and limited access to vital green spaces. To tackle these issues, the project proposes retrofitting neglected areas for community farming, creating a connected green network that prioritises spatial justice and community involvement. The objective is to offer social opportunities and healthy green spaces, enhancing neighbourhood ties and creating a prototype for other high-density areas seeking to bolster their communities through urban farming.

2.2–2.4 Tatiana Vera Espinosa ‘Anti-Fragile Poplar: Water as a Connecting Tissue’. This project puts forward an anti-fragile response to climate change, enabling London to thrive under unprecedented weather conditions. Water is used as the connecting tissue to build social and ecological connections and to fuel the rebirth of Poplar’s identity as a hub for waterborne trade and commercial activities. The flowing dynamics of water-bearing landscapes within the urban fabric will bind the area, creating natural laboratories of landscape exploration and platforms for human and non-human entanglement.

2.5–2.9 Han-Tse Lee ‘The Room Under’. The project retrofits a 600m-long traffic-occupied linear space under the Hammersmith flyover into a green and lively public space enjoyed by humans and non-humans, where a wide spectrum of activities co-evolve with ecological habitats. The design also provides a new community centre for Hammersmith, stitching together an old church, theatre, GP surgery, care home and school. Commuters begin to linger instead of simply passing through and, over time, a new type of space emerges under the massive concrete flyover. Visitors enjoy the retrofitted space and its environmental benefits, such as biodiversity, improved urban air quality and playful water features.

2.10–2.12 Yue Tong (Mandy) Wan ‘Play in Exchange City’. Gentrification is a serious issue that affects many urban neighbourhoods, including Whitechapel. As the area undergoes development, it will be crucial to balance the need for growth with the preservation of its Bangladeshi cultural heritage and prevent the loss of its unique identity. This project seeks to draw people’s attention to gentrification by creating a vibrant and culturally relevant urban environment that encourages playfulness and creativity – creating a more inclusive and joyful urban experience that promotes a sense of community and cultural preservation.

2.15 Mahtab Hajikarimian ‘Make Holloway PollutionFree’. Imagine a transformative vision where Holloway Road, usually bustling with traffic, is transformed into a lush oasis of greenery. By seamlessly connecting two sites – Holloway Road and its neighbouring area – the project fosters a sense of unity among the local community. This ambitious plan goes beyond Holloway Road, extending its reach and culminating in Paradise Park. The result is a captivating experience, with visitors strolling through this newly created green paradise. The air is cleaner, filled with the delightful melody of birdsong. The sounds of cars fade away, replaced by the joyful laughter of students and the passionate cheers of football fans. This green sanctuary symbolises the collective effort towards cleaner environments and healthier communities.

2.16 Radhika Maheshwari ‘Creative Corridors: Retrofitting Hampstead High Street’. The transformation of Hampstead High Street into a vibrant, intellectually stimulating public realm through landscape urbanism and biophilic design principles is a promising endeavour. Its rich history, from surviving the Black Death to nurturing artistic talent, has shaped its unique cultural identity. The

creative corridor will be an incubator for innovation, fostering knowledge exchange between locals and visitors. Strategic connections and moments of pause will immerse visitors in history and culture. Addressing climate change and rising temperatures is also key. Biophilic streets, integrating nature into the built environment, will offer respite and combat the urban heat island effect. Green spaces and natural elements will promote biodiversity and wellbeing.

Feral Landscapes

Richard Beckett, Alberto Campagnoli

Design Studio 3

Feral landscapes are places where there is an attribution of soul to nature, and where our world can be co-created together with socioecosystems. This can be framed as ‘architectural animism’ and challenges the understanding that nature is passive, limitless and outside of us, or something that we can shape to our needs and control without consequences. Instead, we must acknowledge that each and every ecosystem has agency, self-generates and develops new animist cultures that engage with the living world. Every part of this network has an essential role in a new ‘politics of nature’ that we as humans are inseparable from. Our challenge is to secure regenerative futures that co-create with, nurture and are attentive to this life, sustaining the societal needs of humans but with a balance that allows us all to co-exist harmoniously as one.

This year, Design Studio 3’s first term focused on climate emergency, biodiversity loss, key species restoration and ecological rewilding within urban environments. Students explored the relation and social layering of Epping Forest’s border with Chingford, developing design critiques of overly ordered city park landscapes to support areas of unplanned nature within the city.

Larger-scale strategies were explored in term two through a selection of sites across the UK. Students investigated and designed with local communities and ecological networks, creating grounded responses to immediate challenges and speculative scenarios for longer climatic timelines.

With each project, a range of digital and physical media, inclusive of ecological atlases, models, mapping, storyboards and simulations, were used to explore feral design processes.

Students

MLA Year 1

Nelly Deprince, Juan Elton Deves, Jiaxin Guan, Aneena Jose, Ruoxi (Sherry) Shao, Kexin (Claire) Wang, Baihai Wei

MLA Year 2

Xiatong Li, Wanying Peng, Ziyi Yu MA

Valentina Caro Beveridge

Practice Tutor Aitor Arconada

3.1, 3.14 Ziyi Yu ‘Nomading 2050: A Symbiocity Foodway’. Climate change and political instability pose significant threats to global food security. Addressing these issues will require the application of feral methodologies to generate food within existing urban environments. Hardy pioneer species and their symbiotic relationships with urban geology could help establish a resilient ecosystem. A seasonal, localised diet maps minimalist and sustainable nomadic lifestyles onto urban revival. Through community engagement and ecological techniques, this project transforms residual spaces into productive foodscapes. The transition will be promoted at the nomading school, paving the way for a resilient future for the residents of Garston in Hertfordshire.

3.2–3.3 Valentina Caro Beveridge ‘Seascape Rebirth: The Rewilding Coastal Masterplan’. The project is envisioned over a 15-year span, unfolding as a dynamic and evolving landscape. This extended duration facilitates meticulously planned phases addressing salt marsh restoration, enhanced wildlife reintegration, carbon sequestration and novel halophytic agriculture. Floodable zones are crafted, anchored in projections of sea-level rises, fostering biodiversity and wave attenuation. The design encourages scientific exploration, providing a platform for future climateresponsive functional landscapes. The rammed earth models imitate the site’s context. As water courses through the models, a tangible connection is established between design and reality, calling attention to how water moves, disperses and sets within the morphology. This exercise explores the interplay between abstraction and reality, highlighting the importance of model exploration.

3.4 Aneena Jose ‘Wetlands to Mitigate Future Flooding’. Ineffective management of the UK’s wetlands has led to a concerning degradation of vital ecosystems, exacerbating the process of climate change. Given the crucial role wetlands play in carbon sequestration, water filtration and biodiversity conservation, this project explores rewilding landscape techniques to establish a comprehensive wetland framework along the River Thames. This image illustrates the different phases of the project that will address future requirements and help achieve a rich wetland biodiversity by 2050.

3.5 Jiaxin Guan ‘Flowing Renewal’. The starting point for this project is to restore the natural flow of water, allowing it to meander organically. The new environment helps establish a riverbank forest, consolidating and enhancing the habitat for agricultural use. Various tributaries provide water support to different types of land, creating connections across the entire site. Once the water network is established, silvoarable, silvopasture and windbreak systems are introduced. These three distinct planting methods support crop growth and livestock grazing. Soil fertility is ensured through a mature rotation pattern.

3.6 Ruoxi (Sherry) Shao ‘Social Network of Urban Vegetation: Mycorrhizae’. Trees in urban environments typically have a short lifespan and struggle to thrive, even if provided with fertiliser and protection. The mycorrhizal network is a fungus that connects the roots of plants and is often found in forest soils that are unaffected by humans. It links different plants together to form a transmission network for the flow of energy and information in the soil. These make up complex social relationships whereby plants within the network are protected and those outside the network become vulnerable. The project uses mycorrhizae as a medium to create an underground network for nutrient-poor urban plants, allowing isolated plants to return to their original social system of information and energy exchange.

3.7–3.8 Baihai Wei ‘Holocene Chiltern’. The project is set in Southern England in 2050, where the temperature has

risen to hit an average of 30°C in summer. The HS2 Southern Chiltern tunnel portal supports an eco-cyclical model to aid soil restoration and promote the reuse of construction waste. The project removes several road constructions and converts them into canals in order to transport water from the eastern slope’s wetland. The visual shows the detailed design area of the dune’s canal animal crossing bridge, illustrating how the transportation of water will support the rewilded masterplan.

3.9 Nelly Deprince ‘A Productive Forest’. The image depicts a food forest – a landscape purposefully designed to cater to a vegetarian community. Swales and berms contour the landscape, harnessing and conserving water for the drier summer months. Fruit trees, shrubs and various other edible plants co-exist, encouraging biodiversity. The forest serves as both a source of food and a tranquil retreat for friends and families to wander through and explore, providing nourishment and a sense of connection to both the land and each other.

3.10, 3.15 Wanying Peng ‘Urban Feral Agroforest Community’. Urban farms in the UK face the challenge of limited urban land availability, climate change and potential food insecurity caused by geopolitical tensions. London’s largest ancient woodland, Epping Forest, and its adjoining vacant spaces host agroforestry potential, rooted in the woodland’s historical and cultural significance. The transformation of Chingford grassland into a community garden is a collaborative starting point for an edible city corridor along the River Roding, focusing on a 16km² boundary area near Loughton. A phased blueprint dedicated to agroforestry planting unfolds over 50 years, followed by a century of nurturing ancient woodlands and animal habitats, culminating in an agroforestry green network interlinking the urban and rural. The project rewilds the lost forest, harmonising arboreal and agrarian elements, showcasing a prototype of agroforestry cultivation and immersing natural education at the urban fringe.

3.11–3.12 Xiaotong Li ‘Expanding Fire Resilient Ecosystems’. The proposed design is built on the relationship between fire and feral landscapes, both of which are unpredictable yet controllable. A dark and dramatic landscape appears after a prescribed burn, offering a unique setting and exceptional views of the urban park, attracting photographers interested in capturing this extraordinary phenomenon. The process offers not just visual beauty, but an educational opportunity for people to learn about nature’s resilience. The created landscape has aesthetic value and ecological significance. It addresses the challenges posed by global warming and climate change, fostering a resilient ecosystem and transforming people’s perceptions of fire within the English landscape.

3.13 Juan Elton Deves ‘Regenerating Lowland Heathlands’. The project speculates on the possibility of designing landscapes using the ‘Nofence’ system, a technology that can control animals without the need for physical fences. Digital boundaries can be assigned to specific keystone species. This image shows how an area of pine trees and coppice will be transformed into heathland, creating vegetation cover that is biodiverse and drought-resistant. Within this project each animal has a specific function. Certain barriers will be configured for them, while also allowing for opportunities to interact with other key species.

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3.12

Frontier Schemata

Katya

Larina,

Doug John Miller

Design Studio 4

In times of crisis, even our most concrete frontiers are called into question. Established datums are shifted, either by the need for adaptation or in the face of imminent erasure by new untold powers. Often it can seem that these shifts are moving backwards – closing, breaching or assembling barriers and blockades in a world of technological advancement that we are told should be more open and connected. However, within the context of landscapes, frontier systems are reacting to the pressure of crisis across a myriad of scales, often in unpredictable ways.

This year Design Studio 4 investigated the topic of frontier conditions, questioning changing territories and emerging borderlands. We began with a wide range of projects that examined the hidden complex ‘joinery’ behind landscape and social systems. London’s Old Kent Road became one site of personal exploration, with students tracking the history of the neighbourhood and suggesting community-centred interventions. Thousands of miles away, in the fragile permafrost of the Arctic Circle, maps and devices were deployed to record and ritualise a fading landscape.

Our trip this year took us to the Netherlands, where we encountered a highly orchestrated and technologically sophisticated landscape condition. The landscape, fed and held in place by pumps, dykes and careful ecological tailoring, is encountering changing priorities across the country. The country’s rigid defences are being reconsidered as a more thorough understanding of the landscape systems for flooding and protection comes into play.

Each project from our studio represents a student’s individual agenda: from an abandoned Welsh mine reclaimed for pumped storage hydropower to the canals of London, where the latent power of the boating community came together to regenerate forgotten waterways. In each project we learned to blend scale and sensitivity, actively engaging with issues of crisis and community on our frontier conditions.

Students

MLA Y1

Ying Monica Chong, Mingpei Liu, Mingjie Wei, Shihui Zhou

MLA Y2

Chuying Chen, Meilin Li, Ian Jing Xin Lim, Elena Tamosiunaite, Zhengyang

Wang, Bi Ying Wang, Xuan Wang, Ying Yu (Annette) Wong

MA

Nok Yiu (Vanessa) Wong

Practice Tutor

Samantha Paul

4.1 Ying Yu (Annette) Wong ‘Battery Landscape’. Located in Ffos-y-Fran, South Wales, the UK’s last opencast coal mine is proposed as a site for pumped hydro storage. Exploring the potential of transforming the postextraction coal mine, the project is designed to create a nature-oriented infrastructure to collect, divert and remediate runoff for the generation of electricity. Designed as a spectacle, the battery site is a destination for local communities and tourists to visit the reclaimed common land, revealing the energy infrastructure hidden in the landscape.

4.2–4.3 Zhengyang Wang ‘Rebirth of a Mineral Site’. The most highly metal-contaminated land in the UK is located in Gwennap, Cornwall. This project’s site is found at the centre of a large disused mine where years of erosion have led to the collapse of the mine’s dams and the leakage of large quantities of metal pollutants into the Carnon River. The project proposes ecological purification strategies, using the natural landscape forms to establish wetlands and begin hyper-accumulation phytoremediation of metal-contaminated soils with long-term phasing designed to create a site sensitive to the mining heritage of the area.

4.4–4.5 Nok Yiu (Vanessa) Wong ‘Quarry Pockets’. In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in the establishment of dispersed large-to-medium-scale quarries. Located in Bradford, England, this project showcases how small ‘pocket’ quarries might better generate sustainable landscapes. This design approach repurposes leftover materials from the mining process within a broader framework of regeneration. Three interventions are proposed along a chain of mines that restore each site’s ecological significance while maintaining a historical connection to the practice of mining.

4.6–4.7 Mingjie Wei ‘Flowing through the Fire’. Under the influence of global warming and the heatwave crisis, the frequency of wildfires has increased across the UK, particularly on moorland, a distinctive British landform conventionally managed by prescribed burning. This project preserves the unique purple heather of the moorland for long-term sustainability. It conserves the landscape and spreads knowledge on prescribed burning and firefighting techniques by establishing a network of controlled buffer and burning zones.

4.8 Bi Ying Wang ‘Farming Futures of the Lake District’. Due to local farmers being encouraged to industrialise to increase food production, common land on the fells in the Lake District has been overgrazed. Under new post-Brexit legislation, farmers are under pressure to diversify, intensify or retire. Located in Grasmere, this design is a tentative prototype dividing portions of common land into distinct rotational grazing regimes. Novel boundaries and distinct habitats are created and restored with vernacular techniques, traditions and native livestock species.

4.9 Elena Tamosiunaite ‘Boater’s Landscapes’. Located across London’s canal system, this project focuses on making urban waterways a hub of biodiversity and explores how humans and natural environments can co-exist in close proximity. The design seeks to embody the resourceful lifestyle of off-grid communities and activates the forgotten and underused parts of local waterways to increase biodiversity and create more mooring spots for cruising houseboats.

4.10 Meilin Li ‘The Struggle of Tuvalu’. Tuvalu, a volcanic archipelago made up of three reef islands in the South Pacific Ocean, has low resilience to frequent storm surges. The rising sea levels inundating the islands have resulted in a fragile ecosystem and plans for migration. This project proposes the development of coral systems to mitigate erosion and the planting of mangroves to counter saline intrusion. As migration from the island

begins, a long-term connection is maintained, while seasonal fishing continues to provide economic and spiritual support.

4.11–4.12 Ian Jing Xin Lim ‘Tidal Habitat: Sandwich’. Along the brackish River Stour near the town of Sandwich, this project proposes the use of tidal forces to naturalise the landscapes and aid in the restoration of the historical floodplain as a flood defence for the local town. By connecting to the river at three separate points of different salinities, these zones tackle the rising water levels of the river, enhance local habitats, counter saline intrusion and boost local eco-tourism.

4.13–4.14 Mingpei Liu ‘Second Nature: Brownfield Regeneration’. Located in the Lower Lea Valley, this project provides an alternative solution to the neglected regeneration of fragmented urban brownfield sites. The design connects a chain of previously hardto-access brownfield sites and proposes intense phytoremediation. Carefully planned phasing paves the way for engagement with the local community and a contingent of goats to create and maintain an inclusive and symbiotic landscape within London.

4.15 Chuying Chen ‘Post-Industrial Metamorphosis’. Located in London, this project focuses on the revitalisation of an aggregate-processing plant in response to high levels of air pollution. Three phases are used to develop the site over 15 years. Initially dealing with the active industrial site’s impact on local air quality, an intricate system of dust-capturing nets and waterpurification ponds is proposed. As the phasing develops, focus shifts to the long-term restoration of the site moving from air filter to carefully designed public space.

4.16 Ying Monica Chong ‘Choreographing Indicator Landscapes’. In response to massive marine animal die-off occurring on the north-east coast of England, this project imagines how fishers, residents, scientists and volunteers could come together to actively engage in environmental monitoring. It proposes a network of indicator landscapes at different points of the water system to serve as sites of citizen science. The long-term vision of the proposed indicator landscapes is for them to become sites that promote civic engagement and environmental protection.

4.17 Shihui Zhou ‘Reborn from Flood’. Located in Canvey Island, England, this project proposes the creation of an ecologically resilient and defensive shoreline around an existing system of concrete flood defence and oil refinery jetties. New habitats for aquatic creatures are created by recycling materials from disused jetties and installing sediment capture devices. Meanwhile, a living shoreline will augment the old concrete seawall around the site, providing a more ecologically sustainable flood control system

4.18 Xuan Wang ‘Remaining to Forget’. The heavy modification of coastal land around the Humber salt marsh by humans has accelerated sediment loss, with a corresponding drop in intertidal habitats. However, the site is rich in human history and is of major archaeological significance. This design s uggests a large-scale intervention that enables the study of archaeological sites hidden in the intertidal zone, while simultaneously creating landscape systems to prevent further sediment loss and encourage sustainable ecosystems.

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4.15

The Ground Plane

Laurence Blackwell-Thale, Pete Davies

Design Studio 5

Design Studio 5 explores landscape as a continually unfolding process, where the permanence of environments is challenged and their states of equilibrium shifted. Our temporal engagement with landscape is short term, but its effects are long lasting. We can disrupt, augment or alter existing processes or catalyse new ones which may unearth the past, affect the present or suggest new futures.

The starting point for this year’s studies was the ‘ground plane’; both a notion and a physical construct, this defines the role of addition or subtraction from an existing mass or body. The processes we are interested in affect this line, forcing the balance between ‘above’ and ‘below’ off kilter. The interrelationship of supposedly natural and artificial processes has been irreversibly shifted. We have explored the extent of this change and its effects on the ground plane, and unearthed new landscape futures derived from shifted datums. Preconceptions regarding reductive processes or methods of removal have been challenged by additive or positive methods of engaging with the land. By questioning whether moments of historical removal could be remedied by contemporary deposition, we explored the potential of new landscapes set into the pre-existing geological, political and cultural cycles of the ground plane.

Term one started along the foreshore of the River Thames, a site whose complex history has involved a myriad of processes which have brought it to its present state. In-situ surveys, drawings and physical studies examined past, present and future processes of addition and subtraction. Students then developed their observations and research into propositional designs, which were both physically and conceptually born out of reflections on processes of change.

In term two we ventured along the Jurassic Coast, from stone quarries carved out of the earth, to ever-changing landscapes shrouded in complex conservation, ownership and preservation challenges. Our preliminary tests into additive and subtractive processes were set against research agendas and explored through sites chosen during the field trip. Projects explored notions of collection, preservation, museumification and landscape archival, balanced with the growing need for sustainable systems of landscape use.

Students

MLA Year 1

Aditi Nair, Zeyu Yang, Tong Zhang, Yixia Zhao, Leqi Zhong, Ruiyi Zhu

MLA Year 2

Hera Chung, Xinyue Gao, Yuelin Liu, Ziyao (Jo) Wang, Yuxi Wang

MA

Sze Ching (Natalie) Yan

Practice Tutor

Tim Spain

5.1, 5.7–5.10 Yuelin Liu ‘Winspit’s Nomadic Nursery: Lowland Calcareous Grassland Restoration’. The project proposes transforming Winspit Quarry in Swanage into a nursery to redescribe, utilise and stabilise past quarrying traces, acting as an anchor to expand lowland calcareous grassland on National Trust land. The nursery mediates the complex geological transformation and material changes of the post-industrial ruins, shifting from the migration of stone and seed dispersal to habitat recolonisation.

5.2 Aditi Nair ‘Fostering Community Waters’. The River Itchen in Winchester symbolises the invaluable role chalk plays in shaping natural landscapes. However, the importance of the river has resulted in changes in landownership and access, leading to a growing divide and limiting the benefits to the wider community. The project proposes natural and sustainable strategies that mitigate flooding risks in urban areas located further downstream while creating a common ground for visitors, nurturing a deeper appreciation and understanding of the natural environment.

5.3 Zeyu Yang ‘Winspit Quarry Cliff Restoration’. The project restores the planting system of Winspit Quarry, to allow adventure activities and planting systems to co-exist and balance in the site. There are three design focuses: preserving the existing climbing routes, rebuilding planting systems on quarry faces and enhancing the understanding and appreciation of the site’s rich history through walking routes and geological trails.

5.4–5.6 Ziyao (Jo) Wang ‘Boulder’s Return Journey: Bringing Cultural Value to the Abandoned Landscape of Corfe’. Using Corfe Castle’s remaining boulders, the project will create a circular route, with five key moments connecting the ancient quarry to the heritage site. Cultural energy will be distributed and expanded across the landscape, becoming a sequence of historical symbolism and balancing the cultural values of the places where the material was extracted and consumed.

5.11 Sze Ching (Natalie) Yan ‘The Lost But Found’. Extraction is a common process where humans harness natural resources for production to create their own assets. Tout Quarry on the Isle of Portland is one of the results of human extraction. After decades of healing, this abandoned quarry has regenerated – grass has grown and animals are returning. This project proposes a sustainable recovered landscape space for both the local community and nature.

5.12 Leqi Zhong ‘Addition by Subtraction: From a Quarry to a Nursery’. The project creates a nursery of native plants in the Tout Quarry, providing educational access for the public to memorialise the quarrying process. Seedlings can be transported to the neighbouring Bowers Quarry, developing a sustainable cycle to rehabilitate the future of used quarries.

5.13 Tong Zhang ‘Resisting the Receding Fleet’. Dorset’s Chesil Beach is moving inland at a rate of 15cm per year, compromising the future of the Fleet Lagoon. The project establishes a testbed of beach stabilisation strategies, comparing a range of different materials. Proposals capture sediment within the fleet, encouraging vegetation growth and reducing the movement of Chesil Beach.

5.14 Ruiyi Zhu ‘Retreating Beach, Stabilising the Fleet Lagoon’. Chesil Beach, Dorset, is continuously moving landwards, reducing the size of the Fleet Lagoon. It will eventually isolate the lagoon from the sea. A system of tidal ponds maintains connectivity between the fleet and the sea, maintaining the salinity gradient of the Fleet to protect the unique lagoon habitats. A network of routes creates a new social value for the area.

5.15–5.17 Xinyue Gao ‘A New Cycle of the Fleet: Relinking Algae into a New Biological Landscape System’. The project improves the water quality of lagoons

through the reconstruction of wetlands and ecological habitats to achieve regional regeneration and restore the biodiversity caused by algal blooms. The project asks if we can use algae as an ecological fertiliser, or think of such pollution as a beautiful, interactive and seasonal opportunity to alert people to the dangers of sewage in Dorset.

5.18–5.20 Hera Chung ‘Nth Told Stories: Unfolding the Socio-Environmental Unrest of Tyneham Village’. The project takes place in Tyneham in Dorset, an abandoned settlement that has undergone conflicts with militarised land ownership and shifting habitat configurations that threaten its current ecosystem. The project speculates on future scenarios, exploring military references, specifically the tank, as the starting tool for ecological management. While addressing the site accessibility and ecology, the project retells Tyneham’s militarised history, but also questions the ethics of military ‘greenwashing’ and explores the wider issues of military operations.

5.21–5.22 Yixia Zhao ‘Journey to Winspit Quarry: Landscape Swatches’. The project proposes a new route connecting visitors from the village of Worth Matravers in Dorset to Winspit Quarry. A number of landscape swatches along the route restore various native habitats, which are maintained through a range of landscape management strategies and grazing methods. The new route also provides a functional connection with the site and links back to its quarry history.

5.23–5.24 Yuxi Wang ‘The Isle of Birds’. The project discusses three different types of important birds that the site has the potential to attract: popular, well-known birds, predatory birds from the upper levels of the food chain and habitat-sensitive but easily overlooked birds. Through the functional translation of their birdsong spectrograms, an immersive, low-disturbance birding experience is created while targeted habitats are restored at the abandoned quarry.

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5.21

Flowing Between

Matthew Butcher, Tiffany Dang

Design Studio 6

In this era of the Anthropocene – the current ecological epoch in which humans have irreversibly altered the Earth’s planetary systems – designing for a world in which human-made infrastructures co-exist with natural ecological systems is a significant concern.

Design Studio 6 has set out to explore the landscape-architectural practices that can exist in the interstitial space between large-scale infrastructure projects and natural ecological systems. Key to this study is consideration of natural environmental systems as forms of life-sustaining infrastructure. We are also interested in reconciling the practice of landscape architecture with the growing recognition that environmental systems must be allowed to thrive and heal in the face of the Anthropogenic climate crisis. This includes looking at the extent to which landscape architecture can simultaneously alter natural systems and implement social impacts.

Over the course of the year, the studio has been guided by four key questions:

How do natural ecological systems function as infrastructure?

How do these ‘landscape infrastructures’ interplay with humanbuilt infrastructure?

How can landscape architecture influence social infrastructures?

How do the formal, material and spatial languages of design manifest in landscape infrastructure?

To ground our study, we focused on the territory of the Rhine River. Flowing through six European countries, from the highest glaciers of the Swiss Alps to the logistical spectacle of the Rotterdam Europoort, the Rhine represents a complex geopolitical, ecological and cultural context for our investigations. As environmental historian William Cronon put it, ‘different visions of what makes the Rhine “useful” and “beautiful” have competed with each other for at least the past two centuries’.1

This year’s projects have been inspired by the rich histories of the Rhine Valley – from the Roman period, which saw the Rhine act as a boundary to the civilised empire, through the Industrial Revolution, when it developed into one of Europe’s most important industrial corridors and became the subject of Rhine Romantic landscape painting and literature. Finally, we reached the present day, where the severe droughts and floods of the last few summers have served as a dire warning of the future of the climate crisis.

Students

MLA Year 1

Alice Carrington-Windo, Junsong Chen, Sandra Gans, Mengqi Gao, Tao Sheng, Li-Chen Sun, Fengyi (Chloe) Wu, Wang Xiang

MLA Year 2

Hanyue Gao, Ke Ma, Camilla Romano, Yeon Jae Yang, Zhuoer Yu MA

Marlena Hellmann

Practice Tutor

Claudia Pandasi

1. William Cronon (2002), The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815–2000, University of Washington Press

6.1 Tao Sheng ‘Re-Imagining Sydvaranger Mine’. The Sydvaranger Mine is located near the town of Kirkenes in the Norwegian Arctic. The mine has closed three times throughout its history due to war and bankruptcy. This project repairs the contaminated soil and efficiently manages the by-products of mining (also known as tailings) through the process of phytoremediation. The design proposes a series of landscapes that serve the town and engage with the seasonal Indigenous Sami reindeer herding processes.

6.2 Camilla Romano ‘Rhine River Agency: The Floodplain Parliamentary Landscape’. Sited in and along the River Rhine, the project proposes a new parliamentary landscape that represents entities that use and affect the river’s floodplains and waters. The proposal brings different stakeholders to the site to discuss and enact the Rhine’s management policies. The new landscape ensures an integrated relationship between humans and the river.

6.3 Mengqi Gao ‘Flying in a Tank’. Friesenheimer Insel is an artificial island that was created by the straightening of the Rhine in the early 19th century. Today, this post-industrial site faces a decline in its bird populations. This project proposes a design for a bird sanctuary utilising the decommissioned oil tanks on the site. The design consists of several spaces that represent the five different levels of human-to-bird land occupation ratios.

6.4 Hanyue Gao ‘Be Seen: Developing Bostans in Turkish German Communities’. The eastern bank of the Rhine River in Cologne was viewed as the ‘wrong’ side of the city. Once home to many factories, today the surrounding Turkish immigrant communities face the challenges of soil contamination, limited access to organic food and cultural integration issues. This project, situated in Mülheim’s industrial zone, transforms a century-old post-industrial site into a sustainable Turkish community garden.

6.5 Junsong Chen ‘Forest City in Strasbourg’. Strasbourg–Kehl is a historic border town between France and Germany on the Rhine. Strasbourg is also a politically important city, serving as one of the four capitals of the European Union. This border site is representative of the contrasting landscape histories of Germany and France in terms of art, architecture and conservation. Prevailing winds carry pollution across the border, while urbanisation has also led to an urban heat island effect. This project proposes a series of landscapes and a walking network to promote cultural harmony on the border site, utilising the Rhine River as a unifying feature.

6.6–6.7 Ke Ma ‘Urban Wildscape: Exploring the Process of Urban Naturalisation in Practice’. The process of urbanisation and continuous urban development has led to serious ecological problems in cities. Spontaneous urban plants – viewed by many as weeds – present a novel opportunity for introducing vegetation into urban areas beyond traditional urban landscape designs. This project is based in the German port of Duisburg and simulates different urban environments by utilising urban debris and building materials on the site to create micro-environments suited to the growth of different spontaneous plants.

6.8–6.9 Yeon Jae Yang ‘Wine Romanticism Along the Rhine’. The climate crisis is causing increasing flooding and drought along the Rhine River in Germany, impacting the rich local wine culture that has existed since the Roman Empire. Bingen, one of the largest wine towns in the region, has been facing difficulties with the production and quality of local grape varieties, especially Riesling, due to changing climate conditions. Spanning a 50-year period, this project transforms the land around Bingen into a network of wetlands and rice paddies which will adapt to changing climate conditions and usher in a new era for the region. The gradual

replacement of Riesling wine with rice wine will help ensure the preservation of Bingen’s wine-rich landscape.

6.10 Alice Carrington-Windo ‘Landscape of Protest’. Located near Mannheim, Germany, this project is situated on an island in the Rhine adjacent to the largest chemical plant in the world, operated by chemical conglomerate BASF. This design uses the geography of the island as a reflection of BASF and is a visible and metaphorical protest against the environmental damage caused by the company’s pesticides. The design acts as a landscape of activism against current practices and as a landscape imaginary, where a pesticide-free future is envisioned.

6.11 Wang Xiang ‘Plant-Based Water Filtration’. This design proposal addresses the environmental impacts of a golf course in Düsseldorf on the edge of the Rhine River. The design proposes a series of water filtration wetlands which also serve as a community space open to the public. The water filtered by the wetlands also has environmental benefits for the native plants and animals in the Rhine’s ecosystem.

6.12, 6.18 Zhuoer Yu ‘Third River of Rhine-Riverscape’. Since the 20th century, a deliberate effort has been made to allocate more space to rivers and floodplains, establishing a necessary co-existence with nature’s fluctuations. This project envisions a series of dynamic flood bypasses along the primary channel of the Rhine, achieved through the restoration of linear wet meadows. This innovative initiative seeks to mitigate flood hazards, enhance biodiversity, reconnect with the local floodplain heritage and create an educational site centred on nature.

6.13 Li-Chen Sun ‘Ketsch: An Experimental Rainwater Filtration Site’. Ketscher Rheininsel is an island and a nature reserve within the Rhine River near the town of Ketsch in Germany. The island’s most notable features are its abundant water resources, independent wildlife ecology and endangered wild grapevines. This project proposes a design for a rainwater storage system to collect, filter and store rainwater in a series of basins. The filtered rainwater is then distributed to serve several leisure landscapes, including swimming pools and a skating rink.

6.14–6.15 Marlena Hellmann ‘Landscape as Myth’. The Rhine, as a wellspring of Romanticism, has sparked a multitude of myths that have captured both the beauty and perils of the natural world. However, human interference and the effects of climate change are a threat to the future of the river’s enchanting essence. To counteract this development, this project transforms the metropolis of Cologne into a place where magic can occur. A series of landscape interventions begin to blur the boundary between the city’s industrial heritage, the mythical spirit of the Rhine and the ecological life of the river.

6.16 Sandra Gans ‘The Aargau Wetland Trail’. This project explores the ecosystems and atmospheric conditions that would result in the Aargau canton in Switzerland if the four major river networks – the Aare, Limmat, Rhine and Reuss – were restored to a freeflowing state through the removal of various dams and other infrastructure. The project proposes a dynamic lowland cross-canton hiking network through the restored wetland ecosystems.

6.17 Fengyi (Chloe) Wu ‘Garden Diary: Water Detention Landscape’. This project proposes a series of wetlands that serve to filter rainwater and runoff from surrounding agricultural lands. The design is informed by the site’s existing topography. The site also acts as an educational hub, where visitors can learn about water pollution and study different filtration techniques.

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6.7

Altered Earth

Günther Galligioni, Christina Leigh Geros

Design Studio 7

Throughout history, mankind has marked its occupation – both the habitual and the ritual practices that thread one generation to another – into and out of the earth. In studying these earthworks, which can often seem natural, archaeologists have uncovered migration patterns and geopolitical relations that stretch well beyond the written record of history. Today, in a world marked by a glut of media, it is easy to forget the lasting earth-marks of our actions; to forget, that we, ourselves, are writing histories into and out of the earth every day. What stories do we want the earth to tell of our time here?

The landscape of Great Britain is littered with stories constructed by previous generations – some known, some not. When uncovered, they speak volumes about the many varied peoples who have populated these isles over time. If traced, a line or mound of turf – only distinguishable from the surrounding landscape through the sharpness of its form – may unravel human relations that span across continents and through cosmologies. The material of these stories – soils, waters, plants – allows the deep time of geology (rocks) and meteorology (weather) to penetrate the cast of characters, rewriting and often obscuring the story from view. This allows a mingling of fiction and non-fiction, of possibilities and impossibilities, to penetrate the historical record and our understanding of ourselves.

Throughout the year, Design Studio 7 has examined the many challenges faced by, and forcing change onto, bodies around the globe, working with the materials and methods of storytelling with the earth to write and rewrite messages to future generations. We have studied sites across the country whose constructed landforms and altered materials tell of histories that mirror the challenges of today. Learning with these sites, we have considered the elemental properties of soils, rocks, plants and weather that have turned the earth’s surface into inhabitable art. While addressing the complexities, contradictions and conflicts present in the work of land artists including Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria and Michael Heizer, we have also considered the relationship between land art and landscape architecture. Where do these practices converge and where do they depart?

Students

MLA Year 1

Ryan Carter, Zhe Fang, Elizabeth Gorman, Rachele Mangoni, Meliana Santi, Shubhanghi, Mingyang Zhou

MLA Year 2

Saebom Kim, Jingni Kong, Xinyue Mi, Tianyu Yu MA

Tswelelang (Kutlwano) Ramphele

Practice Tutor Vladimir Guculak

7.1–7.3 Xinyue Mi ‘Nature Sensory Journey’. Based on the route of the Via Francigena in Dover, this project explores the relationship between the pilgrimage trail, the spirit of the site and the future of the landscape, creating a journey of dialogue between humanity and nature and finding spiritual support in the alternation of different perceptual spaces.

7.4 Meliana Santi ‘Connect, Conserve and Co-exist’. This project was inspired by the ancient Via Francigena trail. The project explores the possibility of connecting features such as the pilgrims’ walking patterns, the area’s historical sites and promoted routes in various combinations. The proposal was put together to create an improved, mutually supportive walking route. Reflecting on the value of pilgrimage also became a part of the project’s background. Aligned with nature, pilgrimage is a search for meaning, purpose, values or truth. The design promotes access to local flora and produce. Edible plants are used to create dynamic pathways that are incorporated into signage and wayfinding.

7.5 Jingni Kong ‘Transitional Landscapes’. A redesigned bridge over the A2 motorway in Canterbury. The proposal for the new bridge allows the simultaneous passage of animals (wild and domestic), pedestrians and vehicles. Besides the bridge itself, hedges are a critical part of the strategy, existing as buffer strips, boundaries, small animal shelters and paths.

7.6–7.7 Rachele Mangoni ‘Elevation Pilgrimage’. The project proposes a botanical park near Dover, marking the end of the English section of the Via Francigena pilgrimage route. The project revitalises the route by recreating its landscapes, representing the spiritual ascent and the visual journey of pilgrims. Spanning 200 hectares, the park reflects the route’s altitudes and its botanical features. It captures the changing seasons of the landscape, showing the alpine, hilly and fruit-treefilled views and thus recreating the pilgrims’ experiences. This initiative revitalises the site both for tourists and locals, offering a modern identity that reflects its past through vegetation. It harmonises spirituality, history and tourism as a tribute to the past and a magnet for the present.

7.8 Tswelelang (Kutlwano) Ramphele ‘Index of the Isles: A Valorising of the Channels within the English Channel’. This project reimagines the sharp borders of the British Isles as something more porous. This is done through instantiating various forms of movement. Studying the clays of the site reveals the patterns of movement that could take place.

7.9–7.10 Tianyu Yu ‘Asylum Fort’. The project is located in an abandoned military fortress in Dover. It focuses on refugees who journey to the English port amid the ongoing global crisis. Guided by ideas surrounding the concept of shelter, the project uses landscape design to raise awareness about refugees.

7.11–7.12 Zhe Fang ‘Shepherdswell Sharing Space, Kent’. The project is located along the Via Francigena in the Kent district. The design centres on the concept of ‘life-sharing’ and offers an opportunity for pilgrims, hikers, tourists and local residents to share their experiences of the landscape, life stories and local produce, echoing Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

7.13–7.14 Shubhangi ‘Time Travel Landscapes’. The design scheme proposes a new route that intersects ancient pathways that are currently inaccessible. This half-day journey blends modern elements with the past, providing a transformative experience for travellers. Vineyards are planted along the route, creating a visual and experiential representation of different historical periods. The path concludes with a traveller-friendly space,

emphasising vineyards as the primary feature while also proposing flood management strategies for year-round accessibility.

7.15–7.17 Saebom Kim ‘Exploring Mycelium: Rehabilitation Project for Snowdown Colliery’. This project rehabilitates the neglected Snowdown coal mine in Kent and expands the surrounding ancient woodland. Mycelium blocks are installed, utilising waste from the woodland’s coppicing management methods to promote forest spread. By strengthening the connectivity between plants and cultivating low-carbon mushrooms, the area’s local economy and industrial heritage will be improved.

7.18 Ryan Carter ‘Mediaevalised Horizons at Bourne Park, Kent’. In response to the high track known as the Via Francigena, this project offers an alternative route – a low path that follows the river that defines much of the surrounding landscape. Leading visitors through a series of views from higher ground, the low path elaborates the experience through a toolkit of interventions adapted from medieval space-use practice.

7.19 Elizabeth Gorman ‘Sculpting the Landscape: A Material Approach for the Public Realm in Margate, Kent’. This project addresses the climate crisis by redefining the production of newly designed landscapes through a circular economy of material reuse. During the redesign, waste is reused within the site to avoid further extraction and pollution. This project is steeped in the knowledge that landscape architecture is the history in the making of humanity’s impact. To sculpt the land is to listen to its past, observe its present and tell its future.

7.20–7.21 Mingyang Zhou ‘Led by Hedgerows’. Based on the historical and cultural significance of the site, the project harnesses the role of hedgerows in conserving biodiversity and enhancing the environment by creating landmarks along the pilgrimage route, and guiding pedestrians through the landscape so that the route is full of vitality and will never be forgotten.

7.4

7.3

7.2

On the Edge

Tom Budd, Lyn Poon

Design Studio 8

Within landscape, an edge can often be hard to define, but boundaries have played an essential role in the development of Britain for centuries. Described by W. G. Hoskins as among ‘the most ancient features in the English landscape’,1 hedgerows, fences, holloways and roads are a common sight, but overlaid onto these are myriad invisible delineations that may hold more importance in modern society than the physical borders they derive from. As future landscapes are increasingly catalogued within digital planes, we question the role and interpretation of tradition and ritual. In our current climate crisis and with escalating pressures for development, will designations like the greenbelt, common land and areas of outstanding natural beauty need to adapt as we move into an increasingly uncertain future?

This year Design Studio 8 situated itself on the edge. By immersing ourselves in the discovery of physical and invisible boundaries through active observation and interaction, we considered how these edges may shift and define the landscapes of our future.

Initially, we ventured to the outer edges of the Thames Estuary, exploring the stretch of the Thames from Canvey Island to Leigh-onSea and Southend. These landscapes, once home to many commercial industries, are now characterised by conflicting uses. We questioned how, in a landscape of constantly shifting tides, fragile margins and blurred edges, these spaces may react to future environmental change or developmental pressures. Term one fostered an environment of practice-based research, encouraging immersion and on-site experimentation. We then expanded these initial explorations into larger landscape propositions that challenged boundaries and transitioning environments.

Design Studio 8 encourages an environment of collaboration while fostering individuality in each design approach. We seek to challenge conventions – of drawing, making, planning and designing –rewriting the rules and developing processes and ways of working that reflect and confront the complexity of our industry. Our studio ethos is underpinned by innovation and creativity, acknowledging the importance of the unexpected, embracing accidents and developing the ability to design through a process-driven approach.

Students

MLA Year 1

Yifei Dong, Yin Yau (Sophie) Lai, Gislane

Maldonado, Zoya Mohsin, Ruining (Merlin) Mu, Chenxi (Aurora) Wang, Yuqing (Yvonne) Zhang

MLA Year 2

Yingqi (Jessie) Gao, Ana Garrido Chavez, Blair Kern, Nyima Murry, Chui Shan (Jade) Tsang, Ruby Zielinski

MA

Kwan Ho (Hugo) Cheung

Practice Tutor Marco Cerati

1. W. G. Hoskins (1954), The Making of the English Landscape, Hodder and Stoughton

8.1, 8.15 Ana Garrido Chavez ‘Reconnective Landscapes: Water (Or the Lack of It) as a Force of (Destruction) Cohesion’. The project is located within the urban sprawl of Monterrey, one of the Mexican cities most affected by drought in recent years. This fact has not modified the patterns of environmental destruction or changed the consciousness of the local authorities. Consequently, the main objective of the project is not just to propose strategies to improve the ecosystem and the water system of the area. Instead, it connects the two communities divided by the Loma Larga ridge. These communities currently have contrasting economic situations, but their active participation and collaboration are critical to the project’s success.

8.2 Blair Kern ‘New Creekmouth Village’. Located where the River Roding meets the Thames, the site of this project reflects the demarcated nature of land, water and housing created through industrialisation. The design proposes the extension of a waterway as a catalyst for integration. By merging the industrial identity of the site with the waterway, the project provides an example of how to transform a historical industrial riverfront without entirely eliminating industrial land use.

8.3 Ruining (Merlin) Mu ‘Growing Green Buffer’. The project focuses on the boundaries of Canvey Island, a flat and low-lying alluvial fan whose average elevation is 3m below mean high water. A tide test device was designed and built to capture the tide and catch the intertidal ecology zone – a special presence in the tide.

8.4 Gislane Maldonado ‘Lido-Model Preserve’.

An isolated view of the preserve zone. The project proposes the creation of runnels in the existing salt marsh to help improve water flow into the estuary. Increasing water speeds will help prevent waterlogging, which damages this sensitive habitat.

8.5 Chenxi (Aurora) Wang ‘Reviving Cities, Reclaiming Nature’. Colin Rowe’s notion of the ‘Collage City’ suggests that cities should be conceived as collages, comprising diverse historical layers and architectural styles. Fabric manipulation in landscape design involves manipulating and arranging different materials, textures and spatial elements to shape the landscape. It is akin to creating a tapestry where various components are brought together to form a cohesive and visually compelling composition. This approach allows designers to manipulate the topography, vegetation, water features and other elements to create a desired aesthetic and functional outcome.

8.6 Yuqing (Yvonne) Zhang ‘Break the Boundaries’. Located at the boundary between Canary Wharf and Poplar, the project serves as an ecological corridor linking travel routes and communities to connect residents on both sides of the divide. This will transform the existing rail facilities and brownfield site, enhancing the area’s biodiversity and linking local residents together through a new public landscape.

8.7–8.8 Nyima Murry ‘The Herring Girls: A Critical Heritage Masterplan’. Focusing on Wick, the first port town along the herring girls’ route in the Scottish Highlands, this project honours their heritage with a proposal for a new landscape-led masterplan for this post-industrial town. The project highlights the historical significance of the women who collectively lived, toiled and managed domestic duties in public spaces, by creating novel public landscapes through engaging with the lost words of the herring girls that recount the process of gutting, packing, scooping and boring.

8.9–8.11 Ruby Zielinski ‘Canvey Concept’. The project breaks down two approaches to masterplanning that respond to the ongoing challenges, which plague places threatened by rising sea levels, urbanisation and declining biodiversity. It imagines a scenario where the people who live in rural and suburban communities could

take charge of their fate by deconstructing their surroundings and using the materials to build a new infrastructure that embraces high water rather than running away from it. Communities at risk could collectively choose to create liveable places by using topographical and landscape interventions. Their home may look different, but they could be saved from being lost at sea.

8.12 Yin Yau (Sophie) Lai ‘Beyond Wastescape: An Exploration on Recreating Landscape Imagery’. The project explores how the wastescape experience could be brought to a wider audience, and examines ways to transform a wasteland into a productive landscape. The project includes redesigning the last section of the London Loop cycling trail and adopting circular-economy and zero-waste principles to inform landscape design. The end goal is to create a landscape that provides sustainable resource management for London.

8.13 Chui Shan (Jade) Tsang ‘Bricks to Break’. Where rigid meets fluid and reality intertwines with intellectual pursuits, we carve paths brick by brick for souls to roam free. The project begins on the edges of segregated university campuses. As building materials, bricks embody the essence of both fluidity and rigidity. Their various permeabilities weave together public and private spaces, bridge the gap between individuals and society, find harmony in the interplay of the organic and the artificial, and break all boundaries.

8.14 Kwan Ho (Hugo) Cheung ‘Reclaiming from the Reclaimed: A Network of Ecological and Recreational Coastal Landscapes’. Situated in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, the project heals the disconnection within the site by infusing the vibrant district with a series of coastal landscapes, echoing Wan Chai’s maritime heritage. The planned water channels will not only mitigate urban heat island effects but also introduce a series of recreational open spaces, improve native biodiversity and usher in a new pedestrian network.

8.16 Yifei Dong ‘Tideland’. Situated in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, the project explores the blurred edge of the mudflats, examining how this ever-changing tidal landscape can become more accessible to visitors to the area. The design proposition encourages visitors to the site through conceptual play items that double as habitats for the local ecology.

8.17 Zoya Mohsin ‘How to See the Wind: Leigh-On-Sea’. The wind rose device operates by allowing the breeze to flow through its fabric blinds, causing the fabric to move and interact with the wind, thereby visually representing the wind’s presence through the graceful movement of the fabric. The wind rose is not just functional; it also serves as a material palette that fits the mood and atmosphere of the site. The interventions this project proposes draw on this material palette extensively as a result of the physical connection between the device and the site.

8.18–8.19 Yingqi (Jessie) Gao ‘The Entropic Pilgrimage’. This project proposes a pilgrimage that challenges conventional notions of linear time and space and reintroduces the idea of cyclical time and interconnected experiences. The micro-design intervention of the pilgrimage route overlays overlays human and non-human experiences on Two Tree Island in Essex through seasonal cycles, while the macro-design combines geological formations with flexible boundaries to unite the local with the global as a basis for making predictions. This experience through a multitude of times and places breaks away from the norm and passes on the embodied knowledge of a more dynamic lifestyle in an ever-changing time.

Environment & Technology

Coordinator: Ana Abram

Environment and Landscape Technology teaching at The Bartlett School of Architecture equips students with knowledge, tools and techniques to be able to analyse, preserve, design and construct landscapes of the future. Through two lecture series, delivered by a network of practitioners and specialist consultants who teach a broad range of subjects, and modules, students are introduced to the professional world of being a landscape architect. Subjects such as natural systems, earth sciences, planting design, ecology, climate change adaptation, planning, urban design and construction technologies, amongst many others, are taught and reviewed throughout the year concurrently with design-based modules. Year One students receive an overview and learn about the fundamentals of the subject. Year Two and Master’s students cover topics such as climate change, environmental design, landscape planning, conservation and advanced principles in landscape construction.

Landscape, Inhabitation and Environmental Systems

This module sets out the discipline of landscape architecture in relation to physical and natural processes and anthropogenic impacts, and environmental systems – geology, climate and hydrology – are examined. Landscape architecture detailing and the fundamentals of landscape construction are addressed, relating to hard material selection and soil science with planting design. Across three lecture sequences students developed an understanding of why environmental systems matter in contemporary landscape architecture, what those systems mean for built environments and, finally, how to assess and realise landscape projects using contemporary building technologies.

Landscape, Ecology and Urban Environments

This module focuses on topics of climate change adaptation, environmental sustainability, resources crises, environmental assessment and new technologies in landscape architecture. There is a particular focus on the different models of design processes that span from idea to construction. Lectures are supported by extensive seminars, site visits and cross-crits. Modules are enriched by the extensive support of practice tutors, who bring professionalism and a critical view on the buildability of design ideas.

Lecturers

Loretta Bosence (Local Works Studio), Michael Cowdy (McGregor Coxall), Andrea Dates (Townshend), Neil Davidson (J&L Gibbons), Volkan Doda (Atelier Ten), Chris Fannin (inSite, HOK), Gary Grant (Green Infrastructure Consultancy), Philip Griffiths (Verdant Horticulture), Fred Labbé (Expedition Engineering, UCL Environmental Design), Jennifer Mui (MRG Studio), Donncha

O’Shea (Gustafson Porter + Bowman), Martijn Slob (VOGT), Alexandra Steed (URBAN Landscape Architecture), Mima

Taylor (Horticulturalist)

Practice Tutors

Design Studio 2

Paul Bourel (studio gb)

Design Studio 3

Aitor Arconada (Foster + Partners)

Design Studio 4

Samantha Paul (Arup)

Design Studio 5

Tim Spain (Turkington Martin)

Design Studio 6

Claudia Pandasi (Uncommon Land)

Design Studio 7

Vladimir Guculak (studio gb)

Design Studio 8

Marco Cerati (HTA Design)

Image: Flowing through the Fire: Improving Moorland Management Strategy

Based on Fire and Mire, 2023. Mingjie Wei, Design Studio 4

History & Theory

Coordinators: Tom Keeley, Tim Waterman

The history and theory strand of The Bartlett School of Architecture’s Landscape Architecture programme provides a robust foundation, tying together the ideas behind the built landscape and the resulting forms across time, from the scale of the garden to the continent. Building upon this foundation, students explore philosophy alongside patterns and methods of historical and contemporary practice. They develop their critical and research skills across the programme, in coordination with their studio work.

In the first year of the MLA, students undertake a comprehensive survey of landscape history that is both chronological and thematic. In the first year of the MA – the second year of the MLA – students develop essays from research seminars conducted in small groups led by specialist scholars. This year, topics have included extractivism and colonialism, creative and critical topographic practices, and ruins and ruination.

This study of history and theory culminates in the creation of the landscape thesis, completed with the guidance of dedicated supervisors. In this, students research a specific individual area of interest that informs and supports their design research.

In professional landscape architectural practice, much emphasis is placed upon communicating sophisticated understandings and complex strategies through documents which thoughtfully combine text and image. The thesis supports such integrative and synthetic work, and is itself a work of design, engaging students in the creation of a thesis book. The thesis supports the development of individual ideas and philosophies within the larger framework of landscape architecture history; current practice, politics and dwelling; and speculative features, near and far.

This year, the range of thesis topics was rich and fascinating, and many focused upon the topics addressed in a diverse set of research studios. Three theses are included for consideration here, their subjects all closely linked to the work of their respective studios. A representative excerpt of each has been provided. All these theses, as with so many others submitted, are rich both visually and textually, and designed with élan.

Seminar Tutors

Eric Guibert, Danielle Hewitt, William Jennings, Tom Keeley, Diana Salazar

Thesis Supervisors

Aude Azzi, Kirsty Badenoch, Albert Brenchat, Paul Dobraszczyk, Kirti Durelle, Tom Dyckhoff, Karen Fitzsimon, Eric Guibert, Danielle Hewitt, Will Jennings, Xiuzheng Li, Elin Eyborg Lund, Patrick Lynch, Adam Walls, Stamatis Zografos

Embodied Landscapes: Exploring the Interconnections between Body, Dance and Landscape

Ana Garrido Chavez

Thesis supervisor: Elin Eyborg Lund

Seminar leader: Tom Keeley

‘Embodied Landscapes’ explores the transdisciplinary approach between dance, body and landscape concepts, which converge and entangle in the physical and theoretical realms. Similar concepts have been explored in more depth in the field of human geography, such as embodied practice, thirdspace and non-representational theory. However, it is necessary to export knowledge from areas such as dance and geography to the field of landscape in order to think about the human and non-human body as part of the landscape, which is in a continuous process of exchange and transformation.

The central part of this thesis revolves around three embodied performances

constructed between the author and the landscape in which the theories discussed in this document are put into practice. The objective is to use embodied experience as a method, applying Donna Haraway’s ‘situated knowledges’ 1 and Anna Halprin’s on-site performances. 2 This method is used to analyse the possible outcomes when the dancer’s body and senses are exposed to specific landscapes and how these reactions are translated into bodily responses. At the same time, the dancer/author’s presence modifies the landscape in the same way that it modifies the self. Additionally, the concept of the thirdspace, from the human geographer Edward Soja, 3 is crucial in clarifying the complexity of the landscape in each performance. Finally, through film, photography, personal notes and other methods of recording, I reconstruct the process lived in these experimentations, inviting the reader (audience) to relive the experience and encourage their bodily reconnection to the landscape.

1. Donna Haraway (1988), ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’, Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3, 575–99. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066

2. Anna Halprin Digital Archive (1981), Planetary Dance Score. Available at: annahalprindigitalarchive.omeka.net/ items/show/2271 (Accessed: 19 March 2023)

3. Edward Soja (1996), Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places, Blackwell Publishing Image: Still from ‘ACT III’, 2023. Image by the author

The Herring Girls:

a Heritage of Landscape through Folk Song

Nyima Murry

Seminar leader: Tom Keeley

This research explores the heritage of the ‘herring girls’ – a group of migrant women labourers who worked in the UK between 1860 and 1977, gutting and pickling herring fish. Although, at the height of the herring industry in 1913, 14,000 herring girls were employed in this type of itinerant labour, the heritage of these working-class women has been obscured by the story of British fishermen within the hegemonic authorised heritage discourse of British fishing.1 Working with the folk songs of the herring girls, this research moves across, along and between the landscapes of their

annual route, which followed the migration of herring fish down the UK’s east coast.

Gips, khlandyke, farlanes and swills –these words used by the herring girls to describe gutting, packing and collectively living have been slowly lost. By structuring the work around these lost words, the language of these women is employed as a feminist, critical spatial practice. 2 In surfacing the folk songs as a suppressed form of intangible heritage, the research seeks to recognise these women’s labour within this industry. The resulting landscape they produced can still be experienced today.

Writing this critical heritage ‘from below’ the thesis seeks to respond to Ursula le Guin’s call to ‘tell the untold story’ 3 in the hope of finding new and more inclusive ways to relate to this landscape today.

Image:

Surfacing

Thesis supervisor: Stamatis Zografos

1. Laurajane Smith (2006), Uses of Heritage, Routledge

2. Jane Rendell (2003), ‘A Place Between Art, Architecture and Critical Theory’, Proceedings to Place and Location, Tallinn, Estonia

3. Ursula Le Guin (2019), The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction (2nd edn), Ignota

Herring Gutters at Work, Wick. The Wick Society, Wick Heritage Museum. Author Unknown, (nd). Available at: www.wickheritage.org/herring.php. (Accessed: 20 June 2023)

Boundary on the Move: The Politics and Poetics of Resilient Landscape on a Frontier Closed Area

Nok Yiu (Vanessa) Wong

Thesis supervisor: Aude Azzi

Seminar leader: Danielle Hewitt

Drawing on the works of Kenny Cupers,1 this paper begins with an exploration of the Frontier Closed Area in the north of Hong Kong as a border landscape under the interplay of resilient landscape and strategic landscape. Just as Cupers’ Gardening as Geopolitics highlights the political dimension of landscapes, the discussion aims to demonstrate how seemingly innocent acts of gardening can be used as instruments for hidden political agendas.

The thesis then delves into how the landscape serves as a historical document, encompassing social legacies and translating political ideologies through its physical setting. In his book The Botanical City,

Matthew Gandy reveals the afterlives of vegetation and their connections with the metropole and the colony, with a particular emphasis on how traces of vegetation could imply historical traces. 2 The focus of this thesis is specifically on Ma Tso Lung Village within the Frontier Closed Area. To approach the landscape as evidence, the thesis continues the conversation regarding how the border landscape is perceived in scale, medium and time.

Overall, this thesis emphasises the interconnectedness of geopolitical factors, landscape conservation and social heritage, advocating for a more nuanced understanding of the value of resilient landscapes. By recognising the multiple layers of significance embedded in the landscape, the thesis contributes to ongoing discussions about the role of landscape heritage in contemporary society and the intricate relationship between vegetation, conservation and identity.

1. Kenny

as Geopolitics’, Journal of Landscape Architecture, Vol. 14, No. 3, 46–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2019.1705580

2. Matthew Gandy and Sandra Jasper (eds) (2020), The Botanical City, Jovis Publishers

Image: The New Territories Boundary Delimitation Commission at the source of the Sham Chun River, New Territories, Hong Kong, 1898. National Archives, Kew. Available at: https://hpcbristol.net/visual/na22-14

(Accessed: 20 June 2023)

Cupers (2019), ‘Gardening

A Border Case: The Akwesasne Landscape

Holly Joy Roth

Thesis supervisor: Adam Walls

Seminar leader: Will Jennings

Akwesasne is the largest cross-border Indigenous community between the United States and Canada, located along the St Lawrence River boundary. Although a united community, it is governed by at least three different government entities. Consequently, Akwesasne faces a myriad of complexities at the federal, state, provincial and local levels. Colonisation has led to the imposition of the US–Canada border on a community that believes the border does not, or should not, exist.1 As an Indigenous community existing in a borderland, Akwesasne views the transnational border as an arbitrary impediment to a sovereign nation. The borderland landscape of the Akwesasne engages with its geopolitical context, intersecting with the dynamic social, environmental and political organisations of space. Examination of the various relationships with the border reveals political and social tensions, the historical and cultural identity of Akwesasne and the ecological issues related to the border. The escalating tensions within the borderlands are correlated to

Akwesasne’s prominent role in the North American Red Power Movement in the 1960s and ’70s and the locally centred ‘warrior societies’ movement from the 1980s onwards (ibid.: 21). The border has long been a contested site, activated as a catalyst for social engagement and protest through border demonstrations and the assertion of the rights of the people of Akwesasne. The primary goal of this research is to evaluate the governance systems involving the US, Canada and Akwesasne to understand the social and environmental complexities of the transnational Akwesasne through the counterculture publication, Akwesasne Notes By evaluating the social implications of borders and border control, the research also evaluates the environmental implications of species that disregard geopolitical boundaries, and the escalating concerns exacerbated by climate change. Through an analysis of Akwesasne’s border, this study unveils the correlation between the North American geopolitical landscape and the rise in environmental consciousness. By adopting the perspective offered by Akwesasne Notes, this analysis explores the challenges and paradoxes at the transnational border and critically examines the border’s ability to control or divide the community it bisects.

1. Ian Kalman (2021), Framing Borders: Principle and Practicality in the Akwesasne Mohawk, University of Toronto Press Image: Akwesasne Notes 1976–1982, The American Indian Digital History Archive, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Barrington: Artefact or Ecofact? Attitudes towards Contemporary Ruins within Living Memory

Yuelin Liu

Thesis supervisor: Patrick Lynch

Seminar leader: Danielle Hewitt

This thesis turns the lens to the story behind the industrial ruins of Barrington Cement Works, exploring the relationship between landscape heritage and decrepitude. Although the past is occluded, the ghostly traces of industrial history and geopolitics haunt the ruins in the contemporary community’s imagination. Material remains can mediate between history and personal memory. They can silently and implicitly register historical processes such as industrial production and natural rearrangement.1 Through the ruination process, the power of nature and time gradually results in ‘the silent and slow demolition of age’, 2 allowing one to see across temporal scales owing to the absence of order. After losing the functional identity of their antecedents, objects encounter nature, making it difficult to categorise them. Are these ruins

artefacts – relics ‘of human manipulation of the material world’ or ecofacts – relics ‘of other-than-human engagements with matter, climate, weather and biology’? 3 The reconciliation and transboundary between these two forces might rationalise the evolving value of nature, challenging dominant heritage categories and typical understandings.

This thesis seeks to understand human life and engagement with contemporary ruins at various depths and scales of nature and time to reveal a tension between the human order and the modern urge for natural disorder or transgression. It examines how traditional ruins are monumentalised while modern ruins are not, exploring their marginality and their hidden meaning in a capital-driven society. It also examines the potential of ruins to challenge conventional strategies and notions of heritage, relating to multiple temporalities, memory and a sense of place. Finally, it considers how unavoidable change may necessitate a reconsideration of contemporary ruins and methods of heritage intervention, and how these can be co-managed by nature and humans.

1. Tim Edensor (2005), Industrial Ruins: Spaces, Aesthetics, and Materiality, Berg

2. Russell A. Berman (2010), ‘Democratic Destruction: Ruins and Emancipation in the American Tradition’, in J. Hell and A. Schönle (eds), Ruins of Modernity, Duke University Press, pp104–17

3. Caitlin DeSilvey (2017), Curated Decay: Heritage beyond Saving, University of Minnesota Press Images: Left: The chimney of Barrington cement works. Brian Human, 2017. Available at: brianhuman.co.uk/wp/ barrington-cement-works/ (Accessed: 28 June 2023)

Right: The death of the chimney, 2023. Image by the author

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