Tonga Above: A Nature-Based Project

This project was initiated by Jakob+MacFarlane (Paris-base architects, initiators of the French Chapter of ‘Architects Declare Climate & Ecological Emergency’) and Uili Lousi (Tonga-based visionary, internationally renowned artist and environmental activist; President of OHAI, a Tongan not-for-profit organisation for climate change awareness; official representative of the Tongan Government to COP24). With the sea levels rising due to climate change, a number of Pacific island states, including Lousi’s homeland Tonga, are threatened with disappearing under the sea in the future. There will be no way to relocate them elsewhere. Together, we are developing a response to this extreme condition, using nature as our way forward. Based on the idea of a coral reef and learning from the corals’ capacities as resilient structures that evolve over time, we propose a new urban landscape that replaces the one that is too fragile.