Degenerate

Year: 2024 Design & Honor Awards | Category: Student Project

Degenerate is centered around the idea that not all architecture needs to be resilient, but rather embrace impermanence for the benefit of local ecosystems. This project is located in a maritime forest condition which on its own supplies the ecosystem with all the resources it needs. The materials chosen for this project are either fully nontoxic to wildlife and humans or can be assembled and disassembled to be recycled elsewhere once this structure is no longer standing. These materials are chosen to encourage wildlife to alter and make homes in the structure rather than be upkept and in pristine condition.

Design Challenge

This project brief was to create a 20,000 SF research center on Hunting Island in South Carolina, defined by approximately 3.5 acres of largely untouched land. This area is densely vegetated and has an extremely diverse ecosystems such as beach, maritime forest, and marsh conditions which works perfectly as an existing machine. The challenge was to create this research and welcome center for community members and visitors coming to explore the trails on-site while minimizing the inevitable damage created to a place that already operates perfectly.

This project is centered around the idea that not all architecture needs to be resilient. While I am building a building on this site, I believe that it’s okay to build something that is temporary but also benefits the ecosystem rather than cause harm or disruption. The natural decaying of this building through existing wildlife will be an example to visitors and community members that in the end nature will take its course despite our efforts. While this building is a massive experiment in materiality and the reuse of resources built with the existing ecosystems at the forefront, it’s also a statement that in the end nature will endure and overcome our efforts to create an architecture meant to last forever. This building embraces this concept of decay and impermanence and celebrates that architecture doesn’t need to last for a hundred years or destroy ecosystems to accommodate us. Rather than fighting against nature, this architecture embraces it.

Student(s)
Christina Hand

School
Savannah College of Art and Design

Project Location
Atlanta, Georgia

Completion Date
5/31/2023

Professor
Mike Hill