THE POLAR SILK ROAD - OPERATION ABRACADABRA: THE SHTOKMAN ISLANDS & THE DIDACTIC KINGDOM OF NOWHERE IN PARTICULAR

by Jamie Williams

A design investigation into land, sea and air borders focusing on collisions and opportunities between borders and territorial claims within the contested domain of the Arctic Circle.
Game theory and speculative mega-structures operate as satirical and political gestures. The architecture is a statement structure primarily represented as an anti-oil protest. “Operation Abracadabra” is a semester long design tactic and architectural proposal which aims to construct a series of artificial islands on the Arctic sea, claiming internationally unclaimed territories. The construction of the landforms will utilise drill core waste from the surrounding Shtokman gas fields and other neighbouring drill sites to construct two 1sq mile artificial islands between 2020-2025. Furthermore the larger islands; “The Didactic Kingdom of Nowhere in Particular” will be constructed between 2035-2065 once the Arctic ice sheets have shrunk beyond nowhere in particular, all of which collectively claim vast areas of Arctic territory.