What is the title of your graduate show work?

Sporadic Ecologies: Rhizomatic productive landscape as ecosophic/enzymatic urbanisms.

It is a group project by Zhang Yi, Chen Lu, Wang Tzuyen, and Wang Weilin.

What is the project about?

This is an architectural and urban design project situated in Edinburgh.

Sporadic Ecologies is a concept for understanding and constructing sustainable urban ecologies. The project uses the dining table, a daily object, to represent multi-ecologies interwoven in human life. The table indexes the potential crisis of Edinburgh’s food ecology, with excessive reliance on imports and increasingly long food miles, exposing the city to a potential food crisis. We designed a community food project as the Agency (specific constituent buildings of enzymatic territories) tested the possibilities of the rhizomatic productive landscape to reconstruct food ecologies in Edinburgh. The methodologies support the Agencies crossing the limit of the abstract object to physical spatial design and becoming a part of the urban network beyond the metropolitan scale.

How do you best like to work?

This project relies heavily on teamwork. I think it was a perfect experience. The team members worked, collaborated and achieved more.

Can you tell us about some of the things that inspire you and that have influenced you during your studies?

As postgraduates, we have all had experience in architecture design. But experience can sometimes bring us to a standstill, especially when faced with our research topics. What I found very inspiring was the tutor's suggestion that we leave behind our preconceived ideas to seek more possibilities. We used some unique approaches to design and achieved results beyond our imagination.

What have been the highlights of your time at ECA and living in Edinburgh?

The strong history and culture of Edinburgh enchanted me greatly. As a student of architecture, living in Edinburgh is very inspiring.

Do you have any plans for after graduation?

After a very intense year, I would like to take a short break and get out and about. I am very passionate about my profession, and in the future, I will choose to continue my studies in the field of architecture, perhaps as a PhD student.