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The observatory sits on a new terrace in place of a recently felled forest, bounded by a series of dry-stone retaining walls which redefine the topography of the Kielder Water landscape. Its triangular form, clad in black painted steel panels, forms a weatherproof enclosure for the two principle observatory telescopes. The figure of its static closed silhouette by day is given as equal an importance as its kinetic, open form by starlight. By deliberately avoiding the conventional solution of a hemispherical volume for a telescope enclosure, and instead abstracting the form within the technical confines of the competition brief, the project investigates more poetic possibilities of an installation within the landscape and how it might relate by day and by night to land and sky.
Client: Kielder Partnership / RIBA
Location: Kielder Water, Northumberland, UK
Open International 2 Stage RIBA Competition 2005 Shortlisted
Model: A Models
Model photography: Richard Davies
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