The Memory Capsule
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Norfolk, England

“Memories have a way of trapping one’s notion of the future and placing it in a brittle series of mental prisons. Memory becomes sedentary and sooner or later finds a physical shape (art), and this memory emerges from future time. The “time traveller” as he advances deep into the future discovers a decrease in movement, the mind enters a state of “slow motions” and perceives the gravel and dust of memory on the empty fringes of consciousness.” 

(Smithson, 1996)

The proposal is inspired by the invisible forces that linked human races - the collective memory.  Human and landscape memory are the fundamental layout of the proposal. It will embrace the past, present and future of the Hunstanton Cliff which is experiencing coastal erosion at 0.3-0.4 m/year at present. The Hunstanton Lighthouse (grade 2 listed building) will be falling into the sea in the next 30-40 years if no intervention is carrying out. 

While nature declaring its territory, the building will proceed with time, allowing it to move across the landscape following the change of nature using the magnetic levitation track system. It is a piece of architecture that sits along the cliff promenade, conserving the Hunstanton Lighthouse with an extension of excavation platform up to the cliff edge and archive sitting away from the cliff edge. The equilibrium system will take the existing lighthouse as the pivot point with the lightweight building (excavation platform) and counterweight heavy mass (archive) sitting on the opposite side of the track system. Both ends are connecting by public and private deployable link bridge to allow visitors and researchers to have quality time travelling to their destinations within the building while enjoying the scenic landscape.

The proposal is an ultimate piece of memory to Hunstanton - ageing, growing and interacting with time.

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