Casting Quantum Shingle | Dungeness, UK | Unit 21 | 2021

The dynamic shingle landscape of Dungeness is new and charged with energy, pushed and pulled by geomorphic processes and experimental technologies that populate the flat terrain. The boundless sky and infinite horizon plane form a datum against which the changing climate and landscape are measured.

Two Nuclear Power Stations stand on the edge of the landscape, protected from the vast ocean by a narrow bank of raised shingle, vulnerable to the forces of coastal erosion. The power stations become a lens through which to see the world of the quantum, unlocking a narrative of probabilities and entangled uncertainties. In response to this, a design methodology is established in which to compute and celebrate uncertainty.

An experimental flood protection method is trialled along the shingle coast, continuing the heritage of Dungeness as a pioneering testing ground. A performative construction method utilises the uncertain forces of the ocean and the air to weave structure into the shingle bank. Inhabitable volumes are cast into the ground, creating protected shared spaces within the privatised landscape.

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Uncertain Architectures

An uncertain construction strategy is proposed to reinforce and inhabit the shingle bank, resulting in a myriad set of probabilistic structural outcomes.

Inhabiting the Shingle Bank

The uncertain construction process generates an experimental architecture of costal defence, carving out inhabitable volumes within the shingle bank.

Microclimatic Plan

Inhabitable modules populate the excavated shingle bank as bespoke microclimatic architectures, tailored to the precise environmental qualities of each uncertain volume.

Casting Quantum Shingle

A structural language of uncertainty is developed where concrete is cast into the ground and allowed to bleed out through perforated formwork into the surrounding loose shingle.