70° 66" North Observatory and Spa

In collaboration with my fellow student Sarah Sako, we proposed a multi-use facility situated in Finland‘s diverse climatic region, the Laplands. This project engages with the environment by mediating the extremes. Natural light conditions vary significantly througout the year; in the winter months, with as little as two hours of daylight, and vice versa for the summer months. This project takes inspiration from these extremes and defines spaces that extend the threshold between darkness and light. The inhabitable underground space is carved directly into bedrock, with spatial divisions periodically emerging from the surface to create a sculptural landscape above. This serves not only to connect the enclosed and exposed environments, but also defines surfaces that project light into spaces below.

The project took major cues in programmatic arrangement from the sloping forest landscape. The various programs were able to gently slide into either a deeply carved position or a highly exposed one, depending on the desired light quality. The telescopic viewing deck for example, acted as the cylindrical pin for the project, and dug deep into the ground to access the fully recessed observatory. The spa was then dispersed out from that point to engage different parts of the landscape.