2022-2023
Speculative Design

The Bartlett School of Architecture
Tutors: Prof. Laura Allen, Prof. Mark Smout, Tom Budd

The Penguin Island
An imaginary scientific landscape


Inspired by Saloman’s House in New Atlantis, a fictional scientific institute envisioning a future that lives with the benefits of science and technology, the drawing study imagines a fictional energy island that tests and demonstrates bold and trivial science imagination. Environmental technologies and science instruments are integrated with layers of artificial landscape that can be unfolded.  
A fictional scientific institute portrayed in Francis Bacon’s Utopia novel New Atlantis in 1626. The drawing is done by artist Lowell Hess in mock-17th-Century style to illustrate Bacon's story in 1964 book The Scientist. Image source





The project explores the contemporary relationship between technology and environment, examining how technology transforms and replaces natural landscapes. It draws inspiration from the history of scientific experiments, where scientific instruments were built and used for investigative and didactic experiments as well as for entertainment.
(above) A floating solar farm at Agongdian Reservoir. Image source
(below) Wood engraving of a large electro-static generator machine in use in the Colosseum, London, Wellcome Collection. Image source






 © 2026 Chia-Yi Chou 周佳怡