Supervisor:
Lisbeth Funck, Matthew Dylan Anderson, Don Lawrence
The project positions the ambiguity of the policy shift as a productive opening through which new spatial possibilities can emerge, as workers begin to renegotiate their relationship to land beyond plantation-based labour.
Due to the absence of direct site access and comprehensive spatial data, the project adopts a speculative methodology grounded in literature, archival material, vernacular studies, policy analysis and satellite imagery. Rather than positioning speculation as fiction, it becomes a critical tool to engage with an under-documented context.
The Edge
The proposal focuses on the edge between plantation and village, where questions of ownership remain most uncertain. It proposes a communal architecture that supports collective use, agency and shared resources, centering spaces shaped by gendered labour. The project reinterprets the communal longhouse typology found in vernacular architecture. Positioned along the edge, the buildings mediate between plantation territory and domestic life.
Communal Architecture
Access to water and food sovereignty emerged as key concerns throughout the research. The proposal includes a communal toilet and bath house, water filtration systems, a kitchen, and a seed library. The seed library begins the dialogue on moving beyond monocultural plantation practices. Just as important as the programmed space is the unprogrammed, allowing the community to shape space according to their own needs.
Assembly
The construction draws from locally available materials and vernacular building principles. Bamboo based self build systems become an accessible, locally rooted construction method that enables incremental, collective building and maintenance.
Architecture is framed as a participatory spatial practice emerging from material knowledge, resource autonomy, and changing land relations. Rather than a fixed object, the project is developed as a construction toolkit that enables communities to maintain, adapt, and transform the built environment over time.
Contact
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Sherina Jhunjhnuwala