View of the arrival to Caldera de Los Cuervos
Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, is located off the coast of West Africa. Due to its climate, location and governmental regulation, it is a place of minimum light pollution which allows a certain celestial clarity. The island owes its landscape entirely to volcanic activity. Some of the earliest eruptions are thought to have taken place 15 million years ago, whilst some other eruptions have taken place during the geological evolution of the island. Caldera de Los Cuervos was the first volcano to emerge from the eruption of Timanfaya in 1730-1736. During this volcanic event, lava was emitted asymmetrically, forming a “caldera” with a single crater. One of the slopes of the volcano has since then ruptured and thus given us access to its crater. The physicality of the island is divided between the shifting elements such as winds, tides and celestial bodies, and the presence of immobile volcanic rocks, cliffs and craters.
This Caldera was the site for our (1st year) 2nd term project, at the Welsh School of Architecture. We were asked to re-imagine the potential of this place by making a spatial proposition that in some way registered astronomical conditions that either last the millisecond of a meteorite’s spark, or mineral formations sequestering light throughout a geological era.
Given the remoteness of the site in contrast to the rich night sky, one can perceive in Lanzarote, this intervention aims at utilizing the crater's qualities to enhance naked-eye observation.
All around Caldera Del Los Cuervos, ‘gazing’ seats are carved into the volcano’s slope. All of them, made to receive a human shape in various positions, focus the gazer’s attention on specific stars or constellations according to how the person is able to sit. In relation to the time of the year, different celestial elements can be seen from different locations.
All the seats are made of lapilli concrete (a local form of cement) and soapstone, which receives sun heat during the day, stores it, and releases it at night as the gazer lies on it. The seat’s soapstone, a soft material, will be polished and carved by the gazer’s presence like cathedral marble steps, thereby recording the discrete human interactions that take place over time. The seats themselves will also be coated in fluorescent but colourless paint, which will mark the seats with short-term temporary human silhouettes as the gazer lays and inhibits the seats from the receiving light at either sunrise or sunset.
All around the crater, a total of 25 seats will be placed, varying from solo to group experiences. These seats, in order not to disrupt the natural landscape, will be embedded into the slopes of the volcano and thus be only visible as one approaches them from carved paths.
Site model of Caldera de Los Cuervos at 1:2000, with the carved paths leading to the "gazing stations" represented in blue and the various seats in orange
Exploration of the seats, from human body imprints to the final design
Drawings of the three different seats with materiality
Model of an 'Upright' seat in context at 1:50 (solo experience)
Sectional drawings: 1. Solo experience 2. Couple's experience 3. Group experience
Storyboard illustrating all the different sorts of experiences, from the journey through the carved slopes of the volcano to stepping into the seats