This project proposes an architectural intervention within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) to reimagine human relationships with nuclear toxicity. In the aftermath of the 1986 disaster—one of the worst ecological catastrophes in history—radiation continues to transgress political and spatial boundaries through wind, wildlife, and ecological processes, undermining the notion of containment.
Rather than treating the CEZ as a wasteland, the project reframes it as a site for radioecological learning and interspecies mutualism. Drawing on cases of non-human adaptation—melanised fungi, radiation-resistant frogs, and rewilded horse populations—the intervention inserts itself surgically into the ruin-scape to make visible radiation’s effects, support ecological resilience, and produce knowledge in a non-extractive manner.
The proposal merges the CEZ and the adjacent Polesie State Reserve into a nationless experimental zone, governed by ecological conditions rather than geopolitical borders—akin to Antarctica or the ISS. It challenges the logic of abandonment and offers an architecture that confronts the legacies of nuclear modernity while negotiating new, shared futures in contaminated terrain.
