Linnea Pappas-Byers' "Flood Zone"

“With my sculpture, Flood Zone, I reimagine how the looming threat of rising water levels might shape the structure of our lives, architecture, and societies. In this imagined future, humans have been displaced from the ground and live in elevated houses, nestled in the branches of trees. Where once there was soil, now there is water, which humans traverse by raft. With no ground to connect these homes to each other, a network of bridges, platforms, and docks replaces roads and highways.

Many people imagine utter human annihilation in a climate-crisis-ravaged future, but I believe that such a concept absolves us of taking action to care for the human generations of the future. Instead, by presenting what is at stake for generations ahead of us, I hope to inspire compassion for the future, rather than apathy. We still have time to change our trajectory, before all coastal lands become a Flood Zone.”