Unspoken in the Resilient World

"Amid the climate crisis, what guiding principles and ideologies in design and architecture shape the current approach to future building? Yeseul Kim explored this question by examining Oceanix Busan, the world’s first Floating City prototype, especially focused on one material, known as Biorock or Seacrete, which will construct and sustain the Floating Cities. Moving beyond its physical qualities, such as strengthening over time, self-repairing, and regenerating marine ecosystems, Yeseul Kim puts the material into the centre of a narrative, questioning the paradoxical coexistence of ‘obsolescence’ and ‘sustainability’ prevalent in future settlement designs.

Critiquing conventional top-down approaches to building a ‘resilient’ future, the narrative unfolds based on Biorock’s quest to define itself on its own terms, disrupting established material hierarchies and dominant knowledge systems. The project advocates for a shift in perception towards a more pluralistic understanding of the future rooted in the ruins of the present."