Instead of working against the forces of nature, the community of East Tilbury has long sought to return to a nomadic way of life, forgoing the rampant pressures and excess of the neoliberal city for something more attuned; living with (and not against) the land.

Returning to principles of the historic commons, their settlements were designed with the foresight to be able to change within the land and waterscapes, where the dynamic masterplan is built across time, seasons and tides to speculate on new forms of living. The riverbank has receded, but unlike predictions in the early 21st century, the Thames has been deliberately widened. From an initial afforestation of the marshland ecology, a soft system for commons production began, fifty years ago.

Driven by historical principles in commoning, of 'piscary', 'estovers' and 'in the soil', living within the community involves a new relationship to the water and land through seasonal agriculture and ecological stewardship. Also safeguarding the Bata Estate further inland, the common contemplates an approach to architecture that is post-compositional, reactionary, and embedded within larger ecological systems. Instead of building from and against the water, flooding becomes an opportunity to rearrange and expand the commons beyond the Thames.