Seed Vault / Seoul, South Korea / Competition

Finalist in Seoul Biennale Architecture and Urbanism, 2021

Seed Vault functions as an intermediate between a community garden and seed vault. Taking cues from Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which serves as a safety net against the event of a catastrophe or accidental loss of crop diversity. Seed Vault houses its own usable library of seeds able to be planted within the unit itself. Each unit is part of a larger network, and houses solar-powered hydroponic gardens accompanied with a seed vault. A point of departure from the urban experience, as Seed Vault serves as a vignette of concentrated nature embedded within the metropolitan fabric. While concurrently presents a dichotomy between the notion of disaster and a re-imagined bucolic landscape within the urban public sphere. Seed Vault finds itself at the intersection of the changing methods brought on by climate change and the safety precautions of the pandemic. The construction questions the future of plant production as it poses a reconfiguration of the garden during compromised times. The events caused by climate change continue to rapidly change our environment as we know it. Seed Vault seeks to provide a small-scale solution for climate change - directly implanted in the urban environment, providing food security and sustainable crops solutions in urban areas. The semi-open and easily accessible gardens offer a place of pause to the user, individuals can relax and be immersed in greenery – while tending to their plants. Seed Vault explores how a new garden model could emerge out of the intermediate, and provide a safe and sustainable way for growing food.