Graduation project
Negotiating Boundaries: Designing for the Symbiocene
Lotte Wigman
A building style embraces erosion and cohabiting with marine organisms as a way to adapt to the predicted rise of sea levels.
Our ideas about nature and our relationship with non-human beings have influenced the way we build things. Unfortunately, many man-made structures have harmed the environment and its inhabitants. ‘Negotiating Boundaries’ aims to heal these relationships and ecosystems by designing for the symbiocene. It proposes a building style that embraces erosion and succession as design processes, stepping away from rigid borders and embracing sea-level rise and degradation as gradual habitat facilitation. As sea levels rise, we will need to consider marine organisms in our construction decisions as they will be the future inhabitants of our homes. By designing for the symbiocene, we can create multi-species, ecologically friendly habitats that promote a balance between humans and non-humans, and celebrate co-dependence.