Ethnobotanical Journey
This project explores the healing properties of plants in relation to both soil health and human wellbeing, and investigates how these qualities can be translated into a programme that supports plant life cycles, community engagement, and restorative experiences. The proposal is rooted in the ecological conditions of Pomona Island, informed by extensive mapping of existing vegetation and research into the properties and benefits of individual plant species.
In response, the project is developed in two phases. The first phase addresses soil contamination through phytoremediation, introducing and monitoring additional plant species that gradually restore soil health over time. The second phase, which forms the focus of this project, introduces a museum journey embedded within the recovering landscape, communicating the remediation process while exploring the interconnected relationship between soil, plant life, and human wellbeing.
The museum journey consists of a Tea-Processing Workshop and Tea House connected by an elevated promenade. The project adopts a lightweight elevated structure to minimise disturbance to existing ground-level vegetation while maintaining a transparent visual and physical connection with the landscape. The masterplan creates a sequential experience from harvesting to processing and tea consumption, transforming tea into a spatial and sensory experience, using the ritual of tea drinking and apprecation as a medium through which visitors engage with the recovering landscape, ecological processes, and collective wellbeing.
Ultimately, the project reimagines Pomona Island as a restorative urban project, reconnecting local communities with nature and recreation while referencing its historic identity as a place of gathering — a “countryside without the need of a train journey”.
