My primary motivator in architecture is to give people a richer and more fulfilling visual story as they move through the built environment. My belief is that architecture should speak to us on a psychological and philosophical level about the political and social environments we exist within through the experience of space and specific typology.
My most recent project delved into the north sea and the mythology that exists within it. From a visual research into specific places around the sea’s coastlines we found, as a group, how mythology expresses culture. Although the iteration may change, the story remains the same, defining the soul of the places we inhabit.
From here my individual thesis followed a hypothesis that should the current political and economic climate continue, within the regions of the sea, a dictatorial dystopia was possible. This regime would build vast structures of industry in the sea in order to harness the wealth that lies in green energy and hydrogen production.
The structure itself takes the architectural identities of a number of the more significant mythological places studied, and reframes them in the context of this all-encompassing empire. Spaces are made that inspire both awe and terror to the citizens that live within the megastructure. This fuels a system of control that in many ways is synonymous with the methods of political oppression used both in the past and present day.
There is, however, hope in these isolated communities. Should the people recognise the power they have in numbers, a revolt is likely. The question then becomes how would a newly democratic society reuse the architecture of the past to frame the future? No matter how the story is told, the mythological soul of our communities remains constant.
