Jack Spence Y5
The 4th Epoch: Reinhabiting Desolate Landscapes ‘The 4th Epoch’ aims to highlight the significant climate threat facing the UK’s coastlines through a building proposal and adjacent gamified landscape, located at Hurst Castle. Isolated communities, previously brought together through military conflict, have survived and thrived in what may be deemed an uninhabitable landscape. Now situated at the forefront of a climatic invasion, the proposal looks to reinvigorate the castle’s physical inhabitation through the siting of a research outpost and public amenity. Further to this, digital inhabitation of the surrounding gamified landscape enables ‘virtual researchers’ from around the world immersive engagement with the vulnerable coastline. This benefits the castle’s future integrity. Utilising a defensive module system driven by local community desires, virtual interventions are realised on the landscape in due course through on-site fabrication.
The UK’s coastal management scheme has significant inadequacies. This can be seen at Hurst Castle, where insufficient protection has led to portions of the castle wall collapsing. Many other ‘Device Forts’ sit within the Solent and are similarly vulnerable to climate change. Each site is treated as a relic; its architecture preserved in time whilst the surrounding landscape fluctuates.