The Wedding of Casina by Yuchen Wang will be presented at the AT Awards live finals on 17 September 2025. Learn more about the project below.

University
The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London

The Wedding of Casina – A Speculative Study on Ceremonies and Weddings in a Flooded Future Rome is a speculative architectural project that explores how future flooding in Rome might reshape urban life and rituals. Using historical and predictive flood data, the project imagines a cyclical flood event occurring every 25 years, echoing the periodicity of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. A specific urban area of Rome is selected as a mock site for this event, where the flood becomes a recurring phenomenon that the city and its inhabitants actively engage with.

Central to the proposal is the development of both permanent and removable structures that support adaptation to flooding while enabling public celebration. These architectural interventions allow the community to inhabit and respond to water in new ways, transforming floods from natural disasters into orchestrated, participatory experiences. Each simulated flood lasts three months and includes spaces that foster new ecological conditions alongside ceremonial and social use.

The project uses the wedding ceremony as a conceptual lens through which to examine the interweaving of personal, cultural, and environmental transformation. By situating a wedding within the cyclical flood narrative, the project explores themes of union, renewal, and transition. It considers how rituals might evolve to reflect a future where environmental forces are not resisted but ritualised and embraced as part of urban life.

Through this lens, The Wedding of Casina proposes a future Rome where architecture serves both ecological and symbolic functions. The project reimagines urban space as flexible, ceremonial, and ecologically responsive, providing a framework for communities to prepare for, endure, and commemorate recurring climate events.

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