"Light and stone are not different things." Sou Fujimoto
The competition focused on making the most of an abandoned lighthouse near Syracuse, Sicily, and its valuable location and proximity to the sea to create dream-like accommodation able to reinvent the ancient lighthouse and reverse its degradation process.
Our entry concentrates on a collection of buildings that rise out of the rough stone landscape, arranged to function like a tightly knit town, forming a complex composition of architectural elements. Having the quiet emptiness of a village, where silence becomes an architectural tool, it evokes the intimacy and social functionalism of the traditional Mediterranean townscapes.
Using a restrained collection of forms, the theatrical effect is achieved by the density and intensity of the composition. Different heights and a constant play of scale are used to blur the boundaries between foreground and background, giving a sense of longing, while the space between, outlines an intricate network of pavements and courtyards.
Light and silence play key roles, embraced by form, materials, textures and dark shadows that come alive; a love of contrasts, material and immaterial, light and shadow, mass and void. The elements come together forming an organic entity reacting as a body.
