Living Traces, Leaving Traces | FuturArc Prize 2024 Merit

Made up of a total 7,641 islands, the Philippines, with its distinctive archipelago geography, is considered one of the most environmentally vulnerable countries that is highly prone to natural disasters.

Apart from being regularly affected by volcanic activities, landslides and floods, the Philippines sits astride the typhoon belt that is struck averagely by 20 cyclonic storms per year. Located along the Mindanao Trench found with frequent seismic activities, the country is prone to destructive earthquakes that might result in tsunamis too. Its islandic landform also exposes itself to the threat of rising sea level. The internal human-caused issues, from uncontrolled deforestation and soil erosion to severe pollution, are making the country even more vulnerable.

A speculative proposal that responds to the global catastrophic climate scene, the project seeks to reimagine a resilient and adaptive community along the shoreline of Tawi-Tawi Island—a remote volcanic and organic island in the Philippines. Situated within an almost primitive environment, the basic premise is to accept, rather than avoid or reject, change—to adapt and survive while also setting up the ‘stage’ for demise or destruction that leads to evacuation, along the timeline of a changing climate.

The design theorem of the team—from landscape to architecture, and back to landscape again—explores a way of living through a gradual climate destruction and ending (or beginning) of the Earth. Based on a chronological design that responds to the changing landscape and climate, the plan portrays how the people on Tawi-Tawi Island could lay the groundwork, innovate their traditions and cultures using natural resources, and thrive with the ‘shifting’ built environment, until the day when it is fully destroyed.

[This is an excerpt. Subscribe to the digital edition or hardcopy to read the complete article.]

PROJECT DATA

Scenario
Climate Destruction

Location
Sulu Archipelago, Tawi-Tawi Island

Country
The Philippines

Site Area
45,000 square metres

FUTURARC PRIZE 2024: MERIT

Chai Yi Yang and Ng Yi Ming started their architecture journey humbly in the University of Malaya, Malaysia since 2015. Currently, they run as an independent duo and an architectural think tank, apart from their day job as graduate architects. Amidst searching for a break from an exhausting architectural practice, they occasionally participate in open architectural/urban design competitions to ‘refresh’ themselves in the mood of design.

Read more stories from FuturArc 3Q 2024 Green Awards: Architecture for Life After!