At 9:47 am (GMT) on January 16th of the year 2100, hydrological overflows accumulated due to global sea level rise overwhelm London’s primary flood defence system, the Thames Barrier. As a result, London faces a series of catastrophic events directly linked to saltwater intrusion and urban flooding.

In order to ensure the city’s survival, both above and below ground, the project deploys the existence of London’s hidden rivers as core agents of a flood defence organism. Through a series of membranous landscape tissues, valves and deep channelling systems, the hydrological overflows meander between the strata before they fuse together to be exhausted into the deep ground.

The introduced tectonic is based on an experimental state of hybrid materiality focusing on responsive behaviour above and below ground. The proposed landscape exists in a reciprocal relationship with human and non-human territories, changing its shape according to water’s kinesis. Following the tidal Thames, the landscape operates in phases, submerging parts of its main body to lift others, acting as the central circulation for vegetation and the human experience.