Rest In greenPeace
Greenpeace launched an architectural competition to stimulate ideas for ways to fortify the Airplot in case a new government allows BAA’s third runway plans to proceed. Effectively, the brief was to come up with a 21st century fortress – capable of resisting BAA’s bulldozers and stopping construction of the runway. Greenpeace asked for an exemplary piece of sustainable design: a practical solution with cultural and aesthetic power to match the depth and importance of what’s at stake.
What better fits the committed Greenpeace spirit than devoting the hereafter to the ideal of a better world? What better way than offering those true partisans the ultimate act of eternal activism by embracing the most courageous gesture and radical devotion- Greenpeace’s first dedicated burial ground. Building upon Britain’s proclaimed ‘best in the world’ graveyard heritage, the project concentrates on the actual social immovability of the undertaking rather then the physical immovability of an object. The proposal aids the resistance of evection predicated on the understanding that by law any graves less than 75 years old cannot be removed. The initiation of the project would secure the parcel from development close the 22nd century. Arguably, by that time a renewed environmental understanding and monumental cultural shift has swept through industrialised societies, rendering the battle obsolete.
This project is designed to immediately facilitate those who embrace their last act as one of protest and insures them an active role in Greenpeace’s ongoing fight for environmental awareness. By will, a request for burial at the Greenpeace site can become a positive and effective way of leaving the legacy of a healthy, peaceful planet for future generations.
competition longlisted
commended for outstanding conceptual idea and tactic
team
Sascha Glasl
Tjeerd Haccou
Marthijn Pool
in collaboration with
Specialist Operations
year
2010
