The site is located at the base of a massive rock outcrop amidst a heavily wooded area. The smaller trees with their spindle- like trunks are densely clustered in groves, creating something close to a moire’ effect, their structures seemingly incapable of supporting the branches and foliage. The impression is one of a continuous yet differentiated tree canopy supported by the interconnected network of slender trunks. The constant shift of dappled light through this diaphanous matrix creates a wonderful counterpoint to the almost ancient presence of the boulders.

Our proposal establishes these sensations of the permanent and the ephemeral as the protagonist and develops its arrangement and its language as responses to these triggers.

The kitchen and stores embed themselves within the terrain, built from the stones that were excavated from the site years back in anticipation of a project that did not get built. The rest of the spaces (dining, outdoor dining/ bar/ verandas etc.) are sheltered by a square grid roof that flows around/through and over the terrain and its dominant elements. The structural system is developed as analogous to the slender trees and their filtering canopy based on a system of slender tubes aggregated in clusters of 4, supporting every intersection of the square roof grid.

At points this “pixel cloud” receives its stability from slender connections with the boulders and also creates semi-shaded spaces in close proximity to the boulders. The perceptions of these mammoth monoliths take place both from a mediated distance, as well as from very close up where certain dining areas form under its overhang.

The aim conceptually, physically and materially is to amplify the magic of the site without an enforced language or arrangement.The project is more of an interpreter, a mediator between the found and the made, a simple shelter in the forest.