Generational Land sits in a century from now in the region of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, the biggest mangrove forest in the planet and home to two million indigenous people that by the end of the century will be violently displaced due to the effects of the environmental crisis: 1 meter sea level rise and more frequent tropical storms. The natural capability of the forest to induce sedimentation is inhibited by its rarefaction caused by the gradual disappearance of pollinators that would naturally find shelter within the forest vault, consequently affecting the most profitable and resilient indigenous economy: honey. The savage of the generational land lies within the savage of the environment whereas the transmission of knowledge, skills of resilience and soul can happen. Drawing up the environmental and economical indigenous resilience through the creation of a shelter for bees and a safe elevated ground for honey hunting and by immortalizing the generational land in its cultural asset, hence in its rituals and bodies of sacredness, the new vertical forest appears as an intricate sequence of lithic spaces timelessly rendered with salt collected by capillarity through the hundreds of cranes. The forest is now a sanctuary of memories, pilgrimage destination of the displaced in search for their past. Generational Land is an award-winning thesis project.
Status: School Project
Location: Khulna, BD
My Role: Designer