Naut: Autonomous Systems for a Resilient Rural
My work explores how architecture can support rural communities in adapting to future environmental, climatic, and socio-political disruptions. Rooted in both speculative design and real-world data from Cumbria, my thesis investigates how self-governance and resilience can be spatialised in regions increasingly affected by flooding, food insecurity, and the decline of infrastructure.
The project operates across three interconnected scales. At the macro scale, it proposes a territorial strategy in which governance, energy, and ecological zones evolve in response to environmental rhythms. At the meso scale, a network of rural commons facilitates shared land use, decentralised decision-making, and flood-responsive resilience. At the micro scale, a suspended ‘living lab’ acts as a prototype for self-sufficient habitation—testing closed-loop systems for food, energy, water, and wellbeing above land that has become temporarily uninhabitable.
The proposal reframes resilience not as a reaction, but as a proactive civic infrastructure. It positions architecture as a scaffold for governance, care, and ecological transition—where redirected aid funding supports community-led development at the local scale. Future phases of the project envisage a network of permanent monolithic anchors distributed across flood-prone rural territories, enabling shelter systems to be deployed rapidly during crises and to function as experimental and productive spaces in non-emergency conditions.
My interests lie at the intersection of design, environmental change, and social infrastructure. I am particularly focused on how architecture can serve as a platform for autonomy, care, and climate adaptation in often-overlooked rural contexts.
