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Argyll's Ark for the Antropocene

Part 2 Project 2020
Samuel Milward
Alex Dormon
University of Sheffield | UK
The warning signs of unsustainable anthropogenic impact on the earth are becoming more frequent, but our urgency to do anything about it is not. Argyll’s Ark for the Anthropocene is a speculative project grounded thoroughly in reality that addresses the critical climate emergency of our time, whilst simultaneously speculating on our existential future/s.

Located in Mid-Argyll on the West Coast of Scotland, the Ark is a series of five interventions across three sites within a proposed UNESCO Biosphere. Designed to conserve Argyll’s unique natural heritage from human impact, the Environmental Assembly, Research Station and Doomsday Vault are realised through an anthropogenic material language derived from human and geological timescales. Together they support an environmental framework based upon research, education and bottom-up politics; exploring a realm somewhere between an optimistic community-based approach to address the Anthropocene and a somewhat depressing dystopian future - that is sadly, not too fictional.

This thesis is founded upon local environmental issues that are symptomatic of a much larger global problem. We intend it as a model for realising wider social and environmental change where humans live in harmony within their biosphere, and hope this project will go some way towards achieving this.


Tutor(s)

2020
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