We cherry pick history’s influence on the present, from war and genocide, pandemic and slavery, avoiding the legacies shaping the here and now. A case of inconvenience and discomfort? guilt or ignorance?  Or simply thinking it is someone else’s problem?But these days of socio-political/environmental/technological crisis, conflict, and returning slavery, forces us to re-evaluate, as the exploitation, oppression, colonialism, conflict and prejudice shaping our world becomes clear.Architecture is a mirror of these structures, histories, and systems: record of unseen, underpaid, dangerous work; collection of appropriated resources; ledger of enterprise, exploitation and opportunism; manifestation of social and cultural values; but also an opportunity to uproot divisive associations, and re-root ideas for a just and inclusive future.The projects address Bristol’s long history of exploitation and it’s backlash: focused on two harbour-side warehouses themselves by-products of the city’s trade of enslaved people, tobacco, sugar, and cotton, cultivated by the same enslaved people on colonial plantations.By deconstructing, reassembling, and radically renewing the buildings and city, the projects challenge uses/associations/stories and harness redundant resources, materials, and structures, and their embedded values, to question the city's future and engage architecture’s ability to transform attitudes, and propose architecture of inclusion, education, illumination and inspiration, to reshape the city.

Projects:       

1.  Alien - Exploration and analysis of a troubling personal artifact

2.  Probe - Mechanism of enquiry to see the world as it is, not as it appears to be

3.  Measure - Field trip and intensive survey of Bristol and the year’s warehouse site

4.  Map - Multi-scalar mapping of Bristol’s histories/stories/associations

5.  upRoot - Temporary site intervention to engage community and reveal the past

6.  reRoot Permanent community institution (Library, Performance space, Gallery