Malcolm Reading Consultants , the leading organiser of international architectural competitions, alongside its preliminary jury, has shortlisted the studio in this invitation-only international competition which seeks to consider the peri-urban nature of the assigned site — where urban periphery blends with verdant oasis and rich heritage.
An extract from our shortlisted proposal reads:
‘Between Heaviness and Lightness’
How might we begin to work within a memory of such gravity, civility, time, and mystery?
To put forward we must first sincerely acknowledge the weight of responsibility vested in us in seeking to secure the present, and future legacy of this historic site.
How might a contemporary existence coexist with the ancient, and where might we position the threshold between preservation, conservation, and innovation?
Early investigations question how we might marry the nomadic with the settled, the progressive with the conservative, and the ancient with the new.
The very notion of the transient and nomadic, and the long standing and the settled, coveys a visceral image of that which is light and taught, and that which is heavy and dense.
It is from these observations that early rules of engagement begin to emerge —
an ambiguity and somewhere ‘between heaviness and lightness’.
