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Don’t Panic!

Part 2 Project 2022
Ashni Patel
Brion Allen O'Reilly
Sian Louise Opie
Rachel Marie Cummings
University of Liverpool | UK
Gifted a spotlight by sudden global challenges (such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic), panic buying is a topical phenomenon that is deceptive in its architectural significance. Though it may seem like a relatively minor affliction in today’s world, panic buying could also be viewed as a symptom of the wider failings of the UK’s consumer infrastructure.

Intended to question the existing fragility of food production, and the future of sustainable living, ‘Don’t Panic!’ introduces a hypothetical alternative to our existing consumer trade network: The Atlas Tower. This self-sustaining mega-structure resides within an abstract ‘future-Liverpool’, providing food for its residents in an efficient, yet regimented system.

By formulating this design fiction, the existing fragilities within the consumer trade network are explored without the expectation of resolution, or the limitations of our current systems. It is revealed that there are many benefits to growing food close to the population; however, doing so exposes a new set of vulnerabilities that have intense social consequences.

By bringing to attention the highly topical, yet largely overlooked, phenomenon of panic buying, and the far-reaching societal structures that influence it, ‘Don’t Panic!’ provides a necessary, pre-emptive response to the present insubstantiality of our exiting consumer trade network.

Ashni Patel
Brion Allen O'Reilly
Sian Louise Opie
Rachel Marie Cummings

Tutor(s)


2022
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