RETURN TO THE MARSHES: THE FOREGROUND TO EBBSFLEET

Return to the Marshes is an ecology-focused exploration of Swanscombe Peninsula, Ebbsfleet which mediates between a SSSI-recognised ecology and fundamental civic-human life required by an expanding garden city. Conceived from a concept which takes the existing conditions on site and stacking them to consider how a tower can minimise the impact on the ecology. The project identifies those with the same aspirations for the marshes and anticipates how the locals on the site, regional conservation students and Buglife, an international invertebrate charity, can contribute to an educational civic programme in the marshes. The site has gained its rich ecology and brownfield status from industry eventually succumbing to the marshland. Therefore, the proposal predicts and imagines the eventual decay of the materials and its programme, exploring how the architecture can remain a totem or landmark for the future of Ebbsfleet.