Bartlett Environmental Design Prize 2024: 'Engraved Cycles' by Jeff Qu Liu
Bartlett Environmental Design Prize 2021: 'The 4th Epoch - Reinhabiting Desolate Landscapes' by Jack Spence
Members of the Max Fordham team have been tutoring at UCL Bartlett School of Architecture for many years. We’ve established a great relationship with the University over that time and we formally recognised that relationship in 2013 by sponsoring an award at the annual student Summer Show.
The Max Fordham Environmental Design Prize is given to the 5th-year design project that demonstrates the greatest level of ambition, originality, technical innovation and philosophical rigour in the field of environmental design and sustainability.
The prize consists of £1,000 to help the student cover project-related expenses. In addition, they present their project to our whole practice and receive ideas from our engineers and sustainability consultants to help them further develop the environmental premise of their project.
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The winner of Bartlett Environmental Design Prize 2021 is 'The 4th Epoch - Reinhabiting Desolate Landscapes': Jack Spence.
The project highlights the significant climate threats facing the UK's coastlines and considers a potential response by reinhabiting the historic Hurst Castle, Hampshire, and proposing an associated gamified landscape. Hurst Castle has evolved over the last five centuries and is now situated at the forefront of a climatic invasion relating to an increase in extreme weather events and anticipated sea level rises.
The proposal reinvigorates the castle by reinhabitating it with a research outpost and public amenity, and physically augmenting it to fortify against current and anticipated climate threats. Digital inhabitation of the surrounding gamified landscape gives 'virtual researchers' from the area and around the world immersive engagement with the vulnerable coastline. This benefits the castle's future integrity through an extended community engagement and interaction process. 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 proposal is intended to achieve reinhabitation and reinvigoration of the site over an extended lifespan with minimal impacts, so sustainable approaches for design and function within the dynamic landscape are required. Hurst Spit shingle is used to form the sea defence module system and hydroelectricity is generated by harnessing the strong tidal currents that pass the spit.
Hurst Castle Proposal: Reinhabitation of the castle is vital to its survival against future climate change. Proposed phases of reoccupying the castle to benefit its future integrity involve: Remediation; Reinhabitation; and lastly the Research phase when the site will be at its most vulnerable from the late 21st century onwards.
The UK's coastal management scheme may be seen as inadequate for the current increased severity in weather events and future challenges including anticipated sea level rises. This is indicated at Hurst Castle, where insufficient protection led to portions of the castle wall collapsing in early 2021. Hurst Castle is a Device Fort, and there are many others situated in the Solent which are similarly vulnerable to climate change. Each site is treated as a relic; its architecture preserved in time, when once it evolved, whilst the surrounding landscape remains in flux. Due to regulatory constraints and a lack of funding, opportunities to reinhabit and reinvigorate these sites is severely limited. Design possibilities are typically restricted to conservative defence measures that seek to preserve the forts as they are now. The proposal sets out an alternative model for these types of site, whereby Hurst Castle, continuously occupied for 5 centuries, evolves to again become a places of significant activity and home to a thriving community.
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Renewing Defensive Lines: Hurst Castle was established as a valuable asset in the defence of the south coast against military invasion; its fortified form evolving in response to changing military technology from the 16th to the 19th century. The proposal augments the castle’s defences in response to anticipated sea level rises and anticipated changes to its environs due to climate change.
©Jack Spence
Desolate Existence: Research Piers, stretching out into the desolate marshland, seek to blend into the ever-changing landscape. The piers exist in synergy with the water’s movements and the prevailing winds.
©Jack Spence
Virtual Collaboration: The principal of the wider development of the virtual defence network allows for participation from all over the world. Players can utilize their abilities to gain credits by placing assets which aid the defence of a particular location.
©Jack Spence
Latent Virtual Dominance: Technological and cultural advances may cause a shift in landscape occupation, with virtual interactions becoming more commonplace than physical.
©Jack Spence
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Hurst Castle Historical Evolution: From the original construction of the Tudor fort in 1544, Hurst Castle has adapted and evolved significantly over the centuries. However, since the castle’s demilitarisation and resulting depopulation, its evolution has come to a halt leading to the castle’s demise.
©Jack Spence
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Hurst Castle Proposal: Reinhabitation of the castle is vital to its survival against future climate change. Proposed phases of reoccupying the castle to benefit its future integrity involve: Remediation; Reinhabitation; and lastly the Research phase when the site will be at its most vulnerable from the late 21st century onwards.
©Jack Spence
