back in November, we were privileged to be involved in a workshop at CASS exploring design for the distant future. working with staff from the Interior Design BA course, we came up with a brief which challenged students to create a monument designed to be experienced 1000 years from now
thinking long-term, the students had to consider the qualities and performance of two structural materials: one well-known and trusted and the other more newer and more innovative. after researching these two materials, teams looked into global locations ranging from the coast of Iceland to the mountains of South America, taking into account future scenarios ranging from climate change to earthquakes. finally, the students had to dream up a purpose or reason for future visitors to seek out their structure
after an intense research session, the time came to stop reading and get hands-on building mock-ups and models showing the monuments. here’s just a sample – scroll down to read about the winners










in terms of structure and survivability, the InBASE team (Johanna Svenson, Joanne Alexandra, Iliana Mitova, Vlad Cretu, Killian Okeefe and Suad Mohammed, Stine Wojcik) impressed us with their DNA repository in Mongolia (above). combining a unique rotating structure to harness the wind with a carbon fibre/Kevlar surface to minimise dust accumulation, its location, design and contents led us to conclude that it would likely still be there, drawing visitors to the steppes long into the future

for sheer surprise and delight, we chose Coroded Curiosities (Lois Woodgate, Shahzad Aktar, Valeria Selest , Kiari Kivinuk, Ekta Khetia, Sara Mitrova, Christopher Crawford Kelly and Toni Harvey) as our other joint winner. an ultra strong seed-like sculpture tied down with more corrosion-prone metals, it would be sited in Biscayne Park off low-lying Miami. the monument is designed to first succumb to rising global seas and then, 1000 years or so from now, break free of its moorings and pop to the surface, creating a time capsule for future Floridians
in general, we were really impressed with the quality of the ideas – not to mention the beautiful little models made under severe time constraints. although choosing a ‘winner’ was hard because each monument was different, some stood out in terms of hitting the brief, or making us wish we could live beyond the year 3000

















































