PROJECT 2:/ The Cockaigne Academy of Sugar Production
(2013)
The Cockaigne Academy of Sugar Production is an urban agricultural college and processing facility of sugar beet, constructed entirely out of caramel and built to realise the realities of the medieval mythic land of Cockaigne.
Briefly, Cockaigne was a hugely popular medieval folk-lore of a utopic land of gluttony, greed and edible architecture – a land where pigs wonder in herds, deliciously roasted and carrying knives in their backs so that one may cut a slice of bacon from them. Or where fish are so plentiful, that they would fly into your mouth if you even only yawn.
These legends later worked themselves into children’s tales of the Grimm Brothers and other but were largely removed from the full excesses of Cockaigne and the common dreams of Europe. Only to have such feast-full food – the stuff of legend – present itself to the masses in the late twentieth century.
The world we live in today is in many ways a realisation of Cockaigne; greed, gluttony and excess in proportions only imagined in earlier Europe.
The manifestation of Cockaigne in the modern world is in no way more evident than in our love affair of sugar. During the 17th century, sugar represented 0% of our diet (only 4oz’s existed in the whole of the UK). But by the 1980’s it represented 10%, and in 2011, it was estimated to represent 16%. This exponential trend is continuing to rise with no sign of stopping, as even mundane foods find themselves pummelled with sugars (a loaf of sliced bread contains an average of 2 grams of sugar). Beyond casual consumption of sugar, we are beginning to become addicted and reliant upon it. A dependency is growing and we are becoming slaves to sugar.
The newly realised Realm of Cockaigne is looking to expand and embody its intent within the built environment by constructing a supply network of sugar beet farms across the country.
The Cockaigne Academy of Sugar Production represents the initial phase of this development; situated at the heart of the empire (adjacent to St Mary-le-Bow Church, Cheapside, London), it is the home and land where new Cockneys are recruited and taught to proliferate the interests of Cockaigne, to construct its environment and to continue in the steadfast rise of sugar beet and refined sugar output.
The environment is to be constructed entirely out of caramel. An edible architecture.
It trains Cockney students in the growing and caring for Sugar Beet, and in the art of processing quality sugar and caramels from the crop whilst also instilling their dependency on sugar through their construction and maintenance of the Academy itself.
The students live along with Cockaigne sages within the Academy. Together they maintain the Academy both for communal identity and for selfish dependant reasons (to keep the wind off their bodies, the rain off their heads and the cold out of their beds) proliferating the interests of Cockaigne, to construct its environments and to continue in the steadfast rise of sugar beet and sugar output. From this heartland, they will then be experienced enough to go out to the colonies of Cockaigne to farm sugar and construct Cockaign-esque architectures.
The architecture is built upon a structural honesty afforded by the caramels capable compressive strength (54n/mm2 – comparable to a weak concrete) and utilises the extravagant array of colours, textures and material properties afforded by the confectionary range of caramels (with particular interest shown to Hard Crack, Medium Carmel and Monkey Blood – all official confectionary terms for the caramels) to display a patternation and depth of flavour purely from the caramels.
The project aims to explore the potential of alternative building materials for their use in constructing bizarre, obscure or uncommon forms within architecture to re-evolve the traditional architectural orders, to make them suitable for the Realm of Cockaigne.
