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Seed Archive for the Far Future

Part 1 Project 2021
Jekabs Barzdins
University of Greenwich | UK
Responding to R.Koolhaas’ Guggenheim exhibition “Countryside, the future” the brief invited to contemplate how urgent problems within the rural environment could be addressed through architectural means. The project focuses on the practice of seed preservation and proposes to store not only the seed and genetic information itself, but also the proficiency required to plant, grow and harvest it. Additionally, relating to the ongoing pandemic the architecture examines the conditions of living and working on site. The ensuing building located in Woodchester park is an Archive of seeds and agricultural knowledge that is designed to last a thousand years. Its form derives from the idea of a local physical calendar, where the architectural scale in a tomb-riddle-like manner contains harvesting instructions for cognizant future generations.
The Archive is comprised of permanent, locally-excavated stone, whereas the living and working units of temporary timber elements that are easily manufactured and maintained to ensure the sustainability of the non-permanent.
Additionally, the green facades and terraces where the seeds are grown and tested, as well as the Archive itself is open for public engagement via a network of incorporated routes and platforms that connect the park pathways at the top of the Woodchester valley to its base.

Jekabs Barzdins

Tutor(s)
Alex Bilton
George King
2021
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