“Uneven Ground” is a speculative project for a detainee center on Orford Ness, Suffolk, serving as a socio-political critique of a crypto state apparatus that dehumanizes people to justify oppressive control and pursue ethnic purity. The state’s reflex to regulate, surveil, and dominate “other” bodies facilitates treating them as military pawns rather than human beings. This scenario echoes the observations of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, who distinguished between “zoe” (biological life) and “bios” (the manner of life). In a political context, the focus on “zoe” reduces humans to ‘bare life,’ devoid of quality and potential.

BA (Hons) Architecture work by Astrid Kim showing the bomb testing sequence on Orford Ness

The detainee center exposes this reduction, with incessant checkpoints, cages, and tortuous passageways reflecting an arduous legal process for refugees. With no time limit on detentions, it becomes a perpetual state of transition. Set against Orford Ness, the project symbolizes the imperial state apparatus’s relentless expansion, controlling migrants within its confines.

BA (Hons) Architecture work by Astrid Kim showing the bomb testing sequence
BA (Hons) Architecture work by Astrid Kim showing an interior render from security view.
BA (Hons) Architecture work by Astrid Kim showing a section of proposal