2011 – 2012

In July, Adam Marelli and a small team from the Vanuatu Pacifica Foundation (VPF), will travel to the remote island of Tanna (in the Vanuatu Chain).  Rated as the “Happiest Place on Earth” by the New Economics Foundation, the local population sustains a lifestyle hardly affected by modern culture.  Local tribal Chiefs Jack Kapum and Jimmy Lumé have invited the VPF to develop a carbon negative Artist’s Residency to open an exchange with the global community.  

At the forefront of this incredible gesture, Adam Marelli will be combining his skills as a  professional builder and cultural photographer.  Marelli was invited to work alongside Chief Jimmy Lumé’s small building school to construct an experimental bungalow for artists to live on the Naihné’s land.  The Chief granted design freedom to Marelli and the VPF so they can explore a combination of traditional bamboo architecture and western techniques to create a “Seismically Indifferent” structure, capable of enduring 7.0+ earthquakes and cyclones that are typical on the island.