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Commendation

Human Nature

Part 2 Project 2011
Marie Kojzar
 Royal College of Art | UK
In 2021, the government’s privatization of nature has changed the English landscape and its value. The world of
luxury goods sees an opportunity to capitalize on the improved beauty of genetic engineering, and a growing
demand from eco-guilty consumers who have lost their faith in climate science. Responding to dichotomies in human
behaviour, a flawed eco-industry sees a new dawn through genetically engineered nature that ensures an authentic
concern for environmental conservation through consumer attractions.
Sited in Epping Forest, building and landscape are merged into a new genetically engineered ‘nature factory’ for
luxury goods, masqueraded as a revamped ‘eco-industry’. Engineered eco-materials present an opportunity to
explore an unorthodox approach to green building, using the forest landscape as a pallet to engage with a new
holistic architecture in which fashion meets nature, form meets harvest and perfection meets chaos.
The proposal explores the relationship between temporary and permanent buildings. The main factory serves as the
‘classic’ whilst the always changing shop fronts occupy new sites around the landscape to provide a changing
fashion in material, texture as well as form, leaving traces around the landscape. An architecture that is based on
stage sets satisfy a constant consumer demand for change.
The British government’s 2010 plan to sell off public forests acts as a catalyst to the project, which investigates the
potential near future scenario of a privitization of nature and its consequenses. The evolution of the English
landscape will have to consider current trends such as an increase in ethical consumer culture and the momentum
gained by scientific advances such as genetic engineering.
The government stresses that the sell off is looking to energise our forests by bringing in fresh ideas and investment,
and by putting conservation in the hands of local communities. On the contrary, the likelihood is that the clients will
instead be commercial enterprises, which means hidden motives and unanticipated consequenses that may not
resonate well with orthodox conservation methods. The project aims to propose a scenario that investigates the
contrasting nature of an antidote and the fact that not everything in this world that is seen to do good comes without
a pay-off.

Tutor(s)
2011
1. In a future dominated by genetic engineering, how might the world of luxury goods exploit and placate eco-guilty consumers with an improved natural heritage?
2. LVMH is the first commercial enterprise to endorse the government’s new scheme to put a value on nature
3. A new British industry 2021: LVMH’s luxurious Epping Forest masterplan invests in engineered haute couture as well as mass market nature…
4. …maintained by a gridded network of underground laboratories and service structures that keep the choreographed landscape manicured
5. Engineered, sustainable eco-textures are designed, produced and patented at eco-factories scattered throughout the forest
6. StoneMoss – a new engineered eco-texture and a luxurious architectural material for the 2021 collection
7. A naturally engineered design pallet informs the Spring/Summer 2021 collection of architecture
8. Natural as well as artificial site conditions dictate the seasonal appearance of the StoneMoss eco-factory
9. Spring/Summer 2021: Out of the forest emerges an engineered and permanent building-landscape from which the staged seasonal VIP stores are projected
10. Autumn/Winter 2025: Traces of the growth from the previous seasons’ buildings have left marks in the engineered landscape surrounding the eco-factory
11. A section taken through the factory and the staged seasons of House of StoneMoss
12. How will the community react to the opening of LVMH’s eco-industry during Epping Forest fashion week 2021
13. Disposable and biodegradable architecture shown in and out of vogue
14. Man-made nature and building elements merges into a stage-set in which the red carpet and material harvest co-exists
15. The new English Landscape 2021: sustainable, eco-friendly, low eco-sin and 100% desirable
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