Fluid Strata

2020

"The project aims to respond to the urgent matter of tidal flooding in Greater London throughout the next century by constructing a flood-responsive synthetic landscape. By studying the natural behaviours and symptoms caused by water flow and flooding in terrains which dispute any human presence, the design translates their importance as models of terrain resilience. The synthetic landscape is poetically shaped as the Hidden River Tyburn’s “spill-out” into the Thames, acting as a “Reverse Estuary” absorbing the overflow of the River Thames into the Deep and Back Ground. Through a series of operational valves, porous networks and reservoirs, the landscape organs redirect, contain or absorb the excess water. As a result, a Fluid Strata is formed which embraces the Lost Rivers by gradually pulling them back onto the surface."