Channelsea Island - Y3 Portfolio

Direction

30 Jun

Biological Data as Civic Infrastructure

This project investigates urban inequality through an unconventional yet universal dataset: human waste. Located on the Thames at Channelsea Island, the proposal intercepts tidal river water via a siphoning system, filtering and analysing sewage at a city scale. Biological data from across London is aggregated by region—north, south, east, and west—and translated into living indicators through on-site plantations irrigated with the treated water from each area. The health of each landscape becomes a direct, visible reflection of the health of its population.

The architecture functions as an autonomous data factory, powered by energy generated through anaerobic digestion, with surplus energy returned to the community. Public toilet spaces deliberately challenge the social taboo surrounding waste, drawing on Roman precedents where shared facilities become social and conversational spaces. By transforming waste into data, energy, and landscape, the project reframes urban infrastructure as a tool for transparency, collective accountability, and systemic change—proposing that biological data could inform public policy and even influence food supply chains to support healthier populations.