The Bartlett
School of Architecture
Summer Show 2020
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Mosaic of Earthworks

Project details

Student Nikolina Georgieva
Programme
Unit PG17
Year 4

The project is an archaeological and material centre on the edge of Stonar Lake, Thanet. By establishing an understanding of translation in archaeology and geology, it explores alternative ways of reading the land on which people built, such as soil pigmentation, the enactment of ground excavations and uncovering of anthropological traces.


Analytical ground surveying drawings and materially-charged models create a dialog between the spatial and anthropological relationships in an ecology of land economy. Building construction and inhabitation negotiate the transition between enclosed spaces and open terrain, newly built form and pre-existing landscape, activated through human occupation.


The lake shoreline becomes a stage for communal acts of building over time, beginning with x-raying the ground and uncovering its sediment. Processing local clay deposits, gathering ashes, producing ceramic glazes, assembling timber scaffolding for kiln construction, and firing ceramic modules and tiles create a canopy over three contemporary longhouses. Excavating (enfolding) the land, alongside tiling (covering) laid floor platforms and roof cladding, mediate the space between earthworks and roof-works. This open-ended system of interlocking ceramics, fired clay and raw soil, growing as a mosaic of earthworks, is built as an inhabited architecture for today and imagined as the archaeological artefacts of the future.

Composite Archaeological Plan

An x-ray record of the shore of Stonar Lake, where pigmentation signifies the material reflectance spectrum.

Pigmented Vessels

Time is read through geological strata by its colouration. Pigmented ceramic vessels are place-specific, sharing the properties of the rock and clay which shape them.

Archaeological Cuts and Fills

Architecture emerges from the practices of archaeological excavations which activate the landscape through turning and digging the ground.

The Building Site

The site uncovers the archaeological horizon of pre-existing material traces, newly constructed ceramic kilns, podiums and pools, establishing an evolving cultural landscape.

The Three Longhouses

An archaeological centre, ceramic studios and a house for making glazes emerge around kilns. Scaffolding is reassembled into timber trusses for a continuous construction process.

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