Next Nature Manila Part 1 Project 2024 Bowen Tan Architectural Association London | UK Set in the near-future, the film explores speculative scenarios of Manila, the Philippines’ capital, undergoing a spectacular green transformation dubbed "Next Nature." This urban strategy, spearheaded by fictional developers, envisions fusing ecology with technology to reintroduce nature into the city. Manila is the world’s densest city as of 2019. Amongst the world’s most climate-vulnerable capitals, it faces scorching temperatures and unyielding floods. Climate challenges, intensified by its teeming population, have dimmed the quality of life, particularly for its most vulnerable residents.The film examines the stakes of capitalism adapting to climate change. Manila had experienced historic mass population exodus in crisis like WWII. What if this happened again when E-Coin, a fictional conglomerate, partners with the government under an "Economics = Ecology" philosophy. After incentivised de-population, their aim is extensive forestation by retrofitting existing infrastructure. Once shaped by Western economic models, Manila now serves as a fictional testing ground for this green transformation.However, the ambitious scheme comes at high cost. The film narrates how several urban and architectural interventions of Manila’s transformation could alter the lives, memories and hopes of different citizens. From the personal to the urban scale, the city becomes an intelligent, highly complex and multi-layered place. Bowen Tan Tutor(s)