.back to list

.Solar Topographies
Author: Ben Cowd

‘The earliest cities… did not grow out of villages and towns through haphazard processes of accretion; rather they were ritualized formal centers, cosmic diagrams conceived and built monumentally from the start. They testify to the desire to escape the arbitrariness, unpredictability and constraints of everyday life. Building a city that reflects the orderly motion of the stars is civilizations earliest and most spectacular reach for transcendence.
’ Yi-Fu-Tuan, Escapism

The project explores the ineffable qualities of architectural representation and process, focusing on the transcendental experience of timeless space and form. The Solar Topographies trace the path of time, mapping the light and shadow of visitors past and present. As the sun casts shadows over the ancient city of Rome these shadows become contours that can be read as digits on a clock or calendar: Steps representing days and months, stones representing minutes and lines attributed to seconds. Every stone in the topography is a fraction of time/life.

The precise mapping of these shadows is sliced accurately into page by lasers, creating recessed drawings and diagrams. The cutting and burning of the paper creates a line that is soft, sensuous and baroque but has the precision and accuracy of the high-tech. The extent of the burn reflects the intensity of the sun’s heat during that period of the day or year. The perfection/ imperfection of the process inform the poetics and craft of the project.

The long passages of time that cut through the topography lead to viewing platforms overlooking the two cities, creating a threshold, both physical and metaphysical between the palatine and the modern city. The deep pockets in the viewing platform provide shade, ventilation and drainage as well as align with significant astrological and historical events on the calendar. The winding pathways around these pockets lead visitors down into the public observatory underneath and off into the ancient ruins of the palatine.