The Bartlett
Autumn Show 2023
Autumn Show 2023
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![The strategy balances Canvey Island’s existing population while creating new opportunities for nature to return. The design proposes stitching the two together by bringing the muddy, ephemeral qualities surrounding the island inside the walls.]()
![This plan imagines how the homeowners could decide what happens to their properties as they become vacant rather than wiping out communities to create new amenities. This leaves much of the design up to chance and creates unpredictability.]()
![There are three different strategies for property types: general residential plots, plots along waterways, and historically significant plots. Each property type will be reused, adapted, or protected depending on the plot’s conditions and contents.]()
![The comic was the initial concept sketch for the Island. Based on the book Landscape Architecture for Sea Level Rise, it sparked different strategies that could be used on Canvey Island. These were folded into the final plans.]()
Canvey Concept
What is the reality of radical climate adaptation? In one extreme, the World Cup organisers shipped lawn seed from the U.S. to Qatar to create 144 football pitches. Conversely, small island villages are turning to digital mapping to save their culture due to rising sea levels.
If climate change complacency continues, the reality that our world will lose places people call home is inevitable. Sea levels are expected to rise by three millimetres each year, and extreme weather events will become stronger and more frequent. Liveable places will soon become uncomfortable for people unwilling to adapt.
Canvey Concept breaks down two approaches to masterplanning that respond to challenges that plague places that are threatened by being left behind. The project imagines a scenario where the people living on
the edge take charge of their fate by deconstructing themselves, using the materials to build new infrastructure that embraces water rather than running from it. Communities at risk could collectively choose to create liveable places for the future using landscape interventions. Their homes may look different, but they could be saved from being lost at sea.
Unmaking Canvey Island
The strategy balances Canvey Island’s existing population while creating new opportunities for nature to return. The design proposes stitching the two together by bringing the muddy, ephemeral qualities surrounding the island inside the walls.
Site Details
This plan imagines how the homeowners could decide what happens to their properties as they become vacant rather than wiping out communities to create new amenities. This leaves much of the design up to chance and creates unpredictability.
Canvey Concept Action Plan
Canvey Concept Action Plan
The map represents change over time as Canvey Island shifts to become a place people may not be able to inhabit as sea levels rise. The bottom corner contains data points about ecology, population shifts, sea wall changes, and water inundation.
Adapt, Reuse, or Protect?
There are three different strategies for property types: general residential plots, plots along waterways, and historically significant plots. Each property type will be reused, adapted, or protected depending on the plot’s conditions and contents.
Canvey Chiffchaff Comic
The comic was the initial concept sketch for the Island. Based on the book Landscape Architecture for Sea Level Rise, it sparked different strategies that could be used on Canvey Island. These were folded into the final plans.
The Bartlett
Autumn Show 2023
26 September – 6 October
Autumn Show 2023
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