The UK’s coastal landscapes face erosion and potential submergence due to rising sea levels. In East Sussex, the soft chalk bedrock is particularly vulnerable, and the abandoned village ruins of Tide Mills located on its shore face immediate risk.

Care without Conservation challenges conventional heritage conservation by critiquing traditional hard defence strategies. It explores how a paradigm of acquiescence, when managed with care, can lead to a form of preservation which considers both human and non-human futures of heritage.

The ruins of Tide Mills are transformed into platforms for artistic expression and research, providing an opportunity to appreciate its natural and cultural heritage. As the tide advances, the deliberate decay and deconstruction of the buildings create a memorial that commemorates the locale’s historical occupation and contributes to the formation of a chalk reef through bio accretion.

Ultimately, the decaying buildings symbolise the fragility of human intervention in the face of nature, serving as a testament to the traces of history embedded within the landscape.