Fairbourne, a small coastal community in North Wales, faces the threat of flooding. After a cost-benefit ratio analysis determined sea defence funding unsustainable, the Welsh Government decided to implement a ‘No Active Intervention’ policy and decommission the town by 2054. Based entirely upon a projected upper band climate scenario, residents strongly opposed the decision which also failed to acknowledge their opinions. Although the forecast represents an extreme condition, the inevitable socio-economic fallout necessitates challenging the decision.

A series of architectural interventions, activated by the shifting hydrological landscape, animate the community’s protest in anticipation of 2054. More intimate environmental tracking is necessary to monitor the threat posed by fluctuating coastlines and reduce uncertainty in climate policy decision-making. The new town hall symbolises the culmination of past protests, an archive reflecting the dichotomy between residents' opposition to the decision and remnant casts of decommissioned elements. Establishing an iconography, the permanent ruination of the town is framed as the crescendo of protest in the year 2054.