Preserve and Protect

Design Competition
In collaboration with Deirdre Nolan & Abigail Kaage
2020

Reimagining the museum as a “living archive” that engages with coastal ecosystems and communities.

Museums are often understood as static spaces, but what if a museum created a visitor experience that is neither fixed nor climate controlled? With a rich array of wildlife, Living Museum is a catalogue of and monument to the diversity of New York’s coastal ecosystem. It demonstrates how museums can proactively respond to our changing climate.

An open-air tower of scaffolding and metal mesh, its materials are repurposed from nearby construction sites and serve as a habitat for native species. Its foundation is amphibious, with a hollow concrete slab attached to telescoping pylons that rise and fall with sea levels. With the exception of the occasional researcher, the museum is free from human interference: visitors engage with it from a traveling educational center that also serves as a gallery and research facility. Living Museum questions the notion of our traditionally static institutions, reimagining them as active participants in preserving our environment.

This competition entry was shortlisted and exhibited in the Glasgow Science Centre in 2020.