Stargazer Dweller

“The sky is the vaulting path of the sun, the course of the changing moon, the wandering glitter of the stars, the year’s seasons and their changes, the light and dusk of day, the gloom and glow of night, the clemency and inclemency of the weather, the drifting clouds and blue depth of the ether….to be a human being means to be on the earth as a mortal. It means to dwell.”

– Martin Heidegger, Building Dwelling and Thinking.

The stargazers dwell on the earth as mortals. They look up to the eternal night sky, seeking for signs to unravel the enigma of time and fate. Yet, they are bond to fail. The glitter of the stars encompasses time and space at the scale of the universe, which are way beyond human’s sensational capacity and finite life span. The sky witnessed the past before the stargazers were born, and indicates futures that are yet to come. It is the source of the divine and the mystery, and the origin of all of our inquiries and desperations towards life.

Situated on the top of Roccascalegna Mountain, the project entitled “Stargaz-er Dweller” intends to channel the present and the past. The visiting center, composed by two partial rings, is the central piece of the project. Its center is located at the crossing of two axis generated by the medieval fortress and the chapel. Each of its four towers belongs to each of the four seasons. The angle of the towers’ skylights is decided by the constellations in each season. The towers also orient the visitors to their homes according to the stars. Functioned as an eternal clock, the visitor center orchestras the historical buildings, the new living clusters and the landscape according to the rule of stars.

The buildings are designed as stargazers as well. With minimum elevation openings, the dwellers’ gazes are directed towards the sky. Each living unit is equipped with one or more rooms that are dedicated to star gazing. The second floor terraces offer visitors more opportunities for star observation. Small installations spread across the fortress and the chapel, seeking to recreate the relationship among the sky, the history, the human body and the project.

YAC Honorble Mention (2017)
Collaborator: Jia Weng