The Bartlett
Summer Show 2024
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Project details

Programme
Studio 3A
Year 3
Award
  • Activism Prize Nominee
  • RIBA Bronze Medal Nominee
  • Bartlett School of Architecture Medal, MSci
  • First Class Honours

The current food system within the UK is severely broken. Since the middle of the 17th century, Great Britain has been at the forefront of attempts to increase efficiency in its agricultural workforce, firstly during the British Agricultural Revolution, which subsequently led to the First Industrial Revolution. Although this shift in production methods and processes led to a drop in labour costs and resulted in affordability for the end-consumer, the costs of producing food were transferred from monetary to environmental. As Carolyn Steele often says, “there is no such thing as cheap food.”

Thus, a new link between rural and urban, or rather, a re-interpreted form of the centuries-old practice of nomadic pastoralism and commoning is identified and explored on an urban scale within the context of London. This investigation discusses how a new model of urban transhumance can act as an educational link between consumption and production, unlock unused land within a dense metropolis, and feed those who need it most. The complexity and extent of how the food system has failed requires an even more complex response or proposal in order to reimagine how we feed ourselves.

Seasonal Festivals

Seasonal Festivals

Over time, seasonal shifts become ingrained and second nature to those surrounding the site. To kick-start this change, festivals (Lambing, Cally, Harvest, and Slaughter) remind consumers of the ebbs and flows of the supply stream.

Scanned models of a pig's head can be fed back into a steel-forming program to begin creating boundaries in the architecture that respond more accurately to the animal’s realistic features. The head is then cooked and consumed.

Scanning a Pig's Head

Scanned models of a pig's head can be fed back into a steel-forming program to begin creating boundaries in the architecture that respond more accurately to the animal’s realistic features. The head is then cooked and consumed.

Once a year, the livestock roam freely along the streets, a curious interruption of everyday life, engaging locals and visitors in conversations about livestock and the food we consume. Printed in cyanotype, toned with pig dung.

Street Takeover (Dung Cyanotype)

Once a year, the livestock roam freely along the streets, a curious interruption of everyday life, engaging locals and visitors in conversations about livestock and the food we consume. Printed in cyanotype, toned with pig dung.

Two CNC'd and incrementally sheet-formed steel plates sit atop a 1:100 sectional model of the site. As the trains rush past, livestock graze the land freely, seeking shelter under the floorplates. Above, an educational cooking space.

Re-Purposed Embankment

Two CNC'd and incrementally sheet-formed steel plates sit atop a 1:100 sectional model of the site. As the trains rush past, livestock graze the land freely, seeking shelter under the floorplates. Above, an educational cooking space.

Applying Dung

Applying Dung

A closer look at the wall and roof panels. Daub, a simple mix of dung, clay, and earth, can be easily applied by hand, requiring relatively low skill onto the perforated metal panels.

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The Bartlett
Summer Show 2024
21 June – 6 July 2024
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