Observation
noun
- an act or instance of noticing or perceiving.
- an act or instance of regarding attentively or watching.
- the faculty or habit of observing or noticing.
- notice: to escape a person's observation.
It is proposed a wooden structure that gently touches the ground. Its geometrical form it’s divided in eight parts enlightening the presence of its structure.
Evoking the idea of circularity -that there’s no beginning and no end, just a full continuity of an idea, a process or an object- the circular shape takes the leading role in the design of the observatory.
This comprehension -that there’s not an initial moment of the architectural object- leads to this simple gesture of drawing something circular that adapts itself to the place, being a very strong and decided action. Nevertheless its shape, the singu- larity of the object reminds us the unique eye of the mystical giants Cyclops, being the only ‘open door’ to observe and percept what was around them. Therefore, the act of observing becomes more than the action of seeing, showing itself as a complex experience of the senses.
The observatory contains three platforms, which are connected by an internal path that organizes the different stages of this experience. Its interior is marked by an empty central space leading to the understanding that observation it’s also a way of hearing, touching, breathing. Merleau-Ponty said:
“I discover vision, not as a "thinking about seeing," to use Descartes expression, but as a gaze at grips with a visible world, and that is why for me there can be another's gaze.” (Merleau-Ponty, M. (2010). Phenomenology of perception: an introduction. London: Routledge).
His new gaze, or this new way of observation, it’s achieved by the opposite feelings that the structure creates with its contrasts between: outside and inside, light and shadow, opacity and transparency.
The path slowly opens itself to the exterior by a layered wooden skin -that makes the visitor closer to the surrounding nature- and finishes in the last platform at the top of the observatory.
The materials used are mostly wood and stone, chosen as an answer to the needs of the place. The observatory, made of wood, was thought with this material because it is easy to find in the surrounding area, making it simple to be build. It is also a material that during it’s lifetime its changes can integrate the landscape in a very natural way, fusing itself with the park’s view. The path to achieve the structure was thought using existing stones. Even if the structure disappears there’s always this gesture of marking a direction.
