Brief Post | Inhabited Observatory by Aristide Antonas

Aristide Antonas has always surprised us with his speculative projects. As he says, “Design is in the same time engaged in an respectful archeology of “what is existing” and transforming the existing to something unpredictable.”

About this project:

The observation post is located on high ground near the sea, in the middle of the deserted area that it monitors. The view of the landscape offered by the building should be interpreted as a view of a single indivisible region equipped with a bed, a washbasin, a toilet and two showers. The observation post becomes habitable even though the building cannot be closed in any way, nor does it contain partition walls, its spaces are differentiated by the height of the floor in each case. The different levels are accessible by ladders. On the ground level is a living room with benches, a concrete table and an open water tank.

Antonas is always working in metaphoric structures, empty monuments or he is capable of studying the function of a city as murder place. Like the architects that in the 60s and 70s dedicated their time to design utopias and dreams, his projects has been sometimes misunderstood, but we think that he is a forward-thinker, that uses architecture not only to build, but most important: to think.

Published in the book: Oral Architecture, Athens, Patakis, 2004. Collaborator: Yannikos Vasiloulis. The complete photo-set at Flickr.