tower of observation & astronomy
Edinburgh, Scotland, 2015
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a0f486302bd64e620b2bd31b54ea352225c5e5f6f6a19ccac1e6e87d7cddc1c7/1-axo-1.jpg)
For studio Roofplane—Skyplane, architecture becomes a tool of observation. It invites a hyper-sensitization and multiple levels of awareness at multiple scales— within the self, within the site (Kielder forest), and within the infinite.
By reuniting the astronomer and his instrument, a relation that has been estranged due to technological advancement, we rediscover the experience of looking at stars as a public endeavor, and begin to register the human scale within the profound scale of the cosmos.
The study of both metaphysical and physical phenomena – spheres, celestial bodies, and darkness—provides a plethora of potential relations and choreographed narratives. This simultaneity provides a productive tension that yields a discourse within and without architecture.
By reuniting the astronomer and his instrument, a relation that has been estranged due to technological advancement, we rediscover the experience of looking at stars as a public endeavor, and begin to register the human scale within the profound scale of the cosmos.
The study of both metaphysical and physical phenomena – spheres, celestial bodies, and darkness—provides a plethora of potential relations and choreographed narratives. This simultaneity provides a productive tension that yields a discourse within and without architecture.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3a9aa9b840368ed80a2c4aedd9d9be81952521850b65104e4a2dd12876095830/1-axo-2.jpg)
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![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/600598c1b42290152742a67f4dd7dffe6402b7b63bdfd6c5b05112adf1e97241/SITE-PLAN.png)
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![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c040455574767223a2725b0284fb808f036f47375289a7e69e9c61ed1726edb0/150914-sphere-study---pulsar.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/43aae45fd594ccb7c04556acd30c2171fa6878a3b094714d1df16391a88b035d/150914-sphere-study---gradient.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/846495f790c2be4452560ad48789f19bdd6de9943817f52e1f288d346eb05efe/150914-sphere-study---various-5---jpeg.jpg)
Through multiple studios, I have undertaken the paradoxical idea-object of the sphere, in an ongoing attempt to understand and decompose its many layers: metaphysical (foam)—Sloterdijk, physical (geodesic dome) – Buckminster Fuller, scientific (pulsar)—celestial bodies, and theoretical – idea/form of perfection. The Tower of Observation and Astronomy is informed by many of these. Formally, the sphere is an organizing element; five stacked spheres compose a gradient of experiences.
As mediator between ground and sky, the tower offers a new integration with the site – a vertical ascend by day gradually reveals the textures of an artificial forest, subsequently a panorma of this constructed landscape, and finally an awareness of a curving horizon. By night, the tower disappears. The visitor observes darkness, and experiences a new proximity to the cosmos.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f32891c2a6480c9b6c5fb2ec7935da2d4b01aa914714d318a288aed90f6dc723/section-jpeg-small.jpg)