Cuckmere Haven has entered a stage of managed retreat, promising to reclaim the wetlands and disrupt life for the locals inhabiting the coastline. As defences are destined to fail, the future of the grassland and beach is at the mercy of the sea, and, by default, the climate crisis we face. The farmlands will return to saltmarsh and residential homes will crumble at the cliffs’ edge, uprooting a community and destroying the 19th century Coastguard Cottages.

This project attempts to utilise architectural responses to aid the transition of the residents whilst also representing the stages of grief they will be experiencing. The proposed scheme unfolds into a sequence spanning 100 years, during which four individual structures are built, aligning with key transformative moments of the landscape, and resulting in ruination. Designing for an eventual collapse allows each of the structures to become architectural seeds which embed themselves into the earth and create benchmarks for the new and distorted landscape.