Our concept grows out of the subtle distinction between the verbs “to look” and “to see”. While the organ of sight is the eye through which one passively intakes an image, the act of looking engages both the full spectrum of senses and the faculties of thought. Put simply, seeing a painting is different from looking at a painting -- one involves a cursory glance at an object, the other profound contemplation.

Our proposal rejects the idea that a building is merely a curious object embedded in the image of a landscape. Instead, our proposed building is an aggregation of immersive experiences that pose the question of man’s relationship to nature. Each level of the tower highlights a different feature found in the surrounding natural landscape: earth, pasture, flora, air and sky. While a a simple observation tower merely presents visitors with the image of Kurgi Farm’s landscape in its entirety, our proposal juxtaposes the image of the landscape with rooms that emphasise a specific feature of the surrounding environment. This decomposition of the landscape into its constitutent parts provides unique educational opportunities to reflect on how the parts constitute the whole and how the whole is more than just a summation of its parts.

As visitors move up through the various levels of the building, they emerge from a cave like condition that represents the earth and end at the top level where the architecture is light and immaterial to reflect the openness of the sky. The Looking Tower asks us not only to observe the outdoors, but also to look within ourselves and ask questions about our relationship to nature.