Project Location: Hadleigh, Essex, United Kingdom
Project Type: Theoretical Masterplan & Architecture, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Formerly inhabited in Runnymede, an eco-activist community called “The Diggers” crafted an off-grid woodland village to provoke a land reform. By highlighting this disused land in London, they advocated an ecologically sustainable living model with cultivation and dwellings built with local materials. In 2015, these squatters were eventually evicted from their self-constructed homeland, after a lawsuit over the land ownership against property developers.
A new speculative settlement is proposed to relocate these eco-activists in London, where they collectively realise this alternative Arcadia. The experimental masterplan in Benfleet extends the legacies of the Diggers and establishes a living ecosystem governed by the changes in nature, such as sun movements and seasonal transitions. Through this annual pilgrimage of nature, “Festival of Peace” is hosted to celebrate their reform, as well as to promote social autonomy and equality…
During most of the year, the village resides on the higher ground, elevated from the marshland to avoid floods. This mainly comprises of daily living and productive facilities.
The sector that covers the morning routine in the masterplan include the West Crescent Dwellings, Civic Square, Wood Craft School and Workshop. In the morning, residents live along this part of the circular structure to produce wood craft to expand the community. The workshop also provides the necessary tools to build other amenities.
The instrument is a portable device to study the optimal arrangements of various building programmes. By emulating the path of the sun, the programmatic arrangement could be studied accordingly. The device could be brought to any site to document the impact of the sun movements.
The elevation of the masterplan is articulated to provide different proximities to nature, with the sanctuary closest to the horizon. The programmes repsponds to the natural terrain, with the dwellings elevated from the marshland to avoid flood seasons. Permaculture gardens are located at the natural soil.
Five fragments are extracted from the masterplan to represent the spatial and functional hubs in the village. These decribe the living and productive elements within the community, which empower the eco-activists to enjoy an alternative ecologically sustainable lifestyle.