Excerpts from the book ‘MONVMENTVM MM’, 2008

Heralded as a momentous transition, the Millennial event was to be defined through its sculptures, heritage sites, architecture and manifestos; items that, under the broader conception of the word, can all be considered monuments in their own right. Understandably these works would focus on the positive, projecting visions of an idealized heritage and a shiny utopian future.

Revisited, these sites and objects take on a new guise; they become monuments of a different kind, more elegiac in nature. Viewing these artifacts through the lens of the present, we are reminded not only of the folly of the event but also of our binding contract with time and with resolutions made.

Cycle Path Monument, Millennium Coastal Park, Burry Port, Wales, 2007

Waves and high tides are being blamed for the damage that could cost tens of thousands of pounds to repair. Regular users say they are shocked by the extent of the erosion, while park managers said they were urgently looking at the sea defences. The £27m park won a top award for successful use of Millennium Commission funds. Park manager Rory Dickinson said parts of the cycle track had been closed since Christmas due to erosion. “We had a very high tide of 8.4m and there was also a big swell of several metres caused by storms out in the Atlantic.  I have been working here for 10 years and have never seen such tides before”.

Bird Watching Hide, Millennium Commission Funded: Slimbridge Visitiors Centre, Gloucestershire, 2008

For decades, the arrival of the first V-shaped flights of Bewick’s swans in Britain’s wetlands after a 2,000-mile journey from Siberia heralded the arrival of winter. This year, a dramatic decline in numbers of the distinctive yellow-billed swans skidding into their winter feeding grounds could be the harbinger of a more dramatic shift in weather patterns. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust said its first three birds had arrived at its Slimbridge reserve in Gloucestershire, only on Thursday, the latest arrival since 1995.

The Independent, 28.10.07

Bronze Age Burial Site, Millennium Project: Dan Yr Ogof Show Caves, Brecon, Wales, 2007

Gardener, Millennium Commission Funded: The Eden Project, Cornwall, 2008

Natural Disaster Shelter, Tropical Biome, The Eden Project, Cornwall, 2008

Millennium Green, Robin Hood Estate, Poplar, London, 2008

To the left of the flats you can see Canary Wharf and hear the constant sound of new buildings being constructed. To the right the Millennium Dome fills your vision. Yet most people on this sink estate in Poplar are out of work. By securing regeneration money and match funding from the Millennium Greens Trust, the Isle of Dogs Community Foundation accumulated £80,000 to redevelop the site. Eight years on however, the estate-considered by many in the architectural community as a flagship of modernist design-faces demolition.

Perimeter, The O2 aka The Millennium Dome, Bugsby Marshes, London, 2007

The Dome was built on derelict land which had once been occupied by a gas works and various other industries, producing long-lasting pollutants. The soil is polluted to a depth of at least 14 meters with heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, arsenic and toxic organic residues. Heavy contamination is a legacy of the chemical steel, electrical and gas works, which have occupied the site since Victorian times. Greenwich council did declare the site safe for exhibition in 1997, but only for its expected one year lifespan.