Sarah Muldoon

Year 1 MArch

Reactive Waters Station

Purification and Research Sanctuary
Fort Augustus, Great Glen, Scotland

Reactive Waters Station is a hybrid purification and research outpost embedded in the Great Glen. Designed in response to acid rain and accelerating chemical weathering, the complex filters runoff through a chain of basins integrated into the architecture. As water descends through reed beds, biochar strata and basalt gravel, it undergoes simultaneous filtration and neutralisation, revealing the geochemical dialogues that sculpted the Highlands across geological time scales, while the same processes, sped by anthropogenic pollutants, now threaten this fragile balance.

The project fuses remedial infrastructure with architecture and landscape. Roof planes and retaining walls harvest rain and upland flow, steering it along tactile channels where cleansing is signalled by subtle shifts in pH colour and by erosion of stone surfaces.
At its centre is a bathing spa, where purified water becomes both therapy and a lesson in watershed care. Built from rammed earth, local stone and timber treated with the same minerals it studies, the station ages with its setting, writing acids and salts across its exposed facades. Serving as field laboratory, gallery and refuge for hikers, Reactive Waters turns an unseen environmental threat into a multisensory ritual that reconnects people with the fragile chemistry of their mountains.