ROMNEY MARSH THATCHERY

My project is an infrastructural intervention in Dungeness, serving as a ‘proving ground’ for a year-round, reed bed, sewage system. The aim is to tackle current sewage treatment processes that are failing due to ageing, a carbon driven economy and an industrial scaled use of chemicals, as well as capitalist driven models of extraction. The nature themed project will be based on a 100-year life span that will start with re-forming of the landscape to facilitate reed beds and quickly shift standard sewage treatment towards them. The reforming will be achieved using timber posts that will monitor, manage, and access the reed beds as well as control waterflow and sedimentation. In turn, the thatch will be harvested, dried, processed and turned into a natural based typology for the site. This idea emphasizes the temporality of the scheme that may eventually wash away due to the low-lying land. The posts will eventually form the foundation for the structures on site which will facilitate the thatch processing, as well as space for training based around the contemporary and experimental use of thatch in buildings. The posts will also support new infrastructure based around bird watching tourism generated from the large natural landscape.