Observatory
The first gesture was the will to trace a new horizon. We dislocate the observer from his/her relationship with the surrounding context, tracing a new limit that allows to "re-guide, measure and observe" the sky.
There is a 164,04 ft by 16,40 ft (50 metre by 5 metre) circumference excavated on the ground; on the floor and on the walls are marked the main references of our zenith's constellations, keeping the Morningstar as a steady reference and shifting the whole system according to our observation point.
The observer's position is horizontal, "parallel to the Earth and Sky"; lying down on reclinable chairs, he/she is granted access to prosthetics/extensions or peripherals that amplify the possibilities for perception and references of Knowledge.
Beneath this space there is a cistern, a water-tank where the rainwater is gathered, identically in shape to the upper-ground square. During daytime the light enters this place, filtered by small openings that correspond to the antipode star system. At night the light is projected from the inside onto the outside, tracing the same drawing, this time visible on the pavement of the outside observatory, thus completing the zenith.
The bird-watch towers develop vertically, getting us closer to the sky, as an antithesis of the sky observatory. They are placed on the territory in consonance with the coordinates of the main constellations. The different towers are connected by underground water canals that follow the same coordinates, converging at the end in the central water-tank.
A confrontation of opposites is here intended; a wish to relate antithetic situations, in reference to what is missing, nostalgia of unity: our universe.
The act of watching the sky and the birds is no more than a way of seeing ourselves in the world, a way of reflecting on the relationship between the microcosms and the macrocosms and the balance between the four classical elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire.
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Credits
Location
Montemor-o-Novo
Owner
Museum Virtual
Project
1997
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Architecture
ARX PORTUGAL, Arquitectos Lda.
José Mateus
Nuno Mateus
Work Team
Paulo Rocha, Stefano Riva
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