Centre for (Under)ground Affairs Part 1 Project 2024 Alicia Toft Gerhardstein Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture | UK The project proposes Princes Street Gardens is to become a new wetland and acknowledges that wetland formation is a process which occurs over time. This new wetland landscape recalls the marshy lands of the Nor’Loch that anchored old town Edinburgh for over 500 years. It also acknowledges our changing climate which has resulted in the regular flooding of West Princes Street Gardens, embracing it as an opportunity to enable future occupation of the city in spite of changing environmental conditions whilst reflecting (upon) the city’s rich civic history.My proposal for an occupied bridge carefully considers the rich ground upon which it rests, attempting to sensitively navigate the current and future physical site environment whilst reflecting the civic context of Edinburgh throughout time. The bridge is an archaeological tool for uncovering and consolidating artefacts marking the city’s history: flotsam and jetsam of past lives lost to the Loch via the city’s drains and open sewers. The bridge facilitates the excavation process and links spaces for cleaning, processing, storing and displaying the found artefacts. It also makes use of the sediment collection that occurs during cleaning of artefacts and occurs during cleaning of artefacts and the processing of soil samples through the in-situ making of ceramic shingles from waste sediment, which will form the bridge’s weatherproofing cladding: as such, the bridge itself (like its content) is excavated from the historic ground that it stands upon. Mirroring the gradual growth of a wetland environment, the occupied bridge is constructed over several stages, its form and construction dictated by location of archaeological digs and volume of ground interrogated and processed, all while meandering amongst memorials to Edinburgh’s people. Alicia Toft Gerhardstein Tutor(s) Kevin Adams Maria Mitsoula Neil Cunning