The Ancient Ladder

“The eyes of an animal when they consider a man are attentive and wary. The same animal may well look at other species in the same way. He does not reserve a special look for man. But by no other species except man will the animal’s look be recognized as familiar. Other animals are held by the look. Man becomes aware of himself returning the look.

The animal scrutinizes himself across a narrow abyss of non-comprehension. This is why the man can surprise the animal. Yet the animal — even if domesticated — can also surprise the man.”

— John Berger, About Looking

The cover page of John Berger’s book About Looking clearly summarizes the idea of how man differs from animals in perceiving time, space and thus motion in the real world.

Here is the story of a modern-day invasion to R. Castle.

As architects, we designed the tool for the invasion by taking inspiration from the ladders that were used by enemies to climb castle walls in earlier times. This ladder also functions as a device that focuses the visitor’s perception on presence, place and silence, guiding him or her toward a new way of looking.

The emphasis on presence, place and silence forms the key concepts of the project. Thus, a passageway is embodied to link the ground level (town) to the roof level (castle).

From the fluidity embodied in our visions, we imagined in this place a world where dream and reality, presence and absence, could coexist and teach one how to look outward.

Therefore, our intervention is restricted to only one place: a linear path located on top of the rocky area where no trees are present.

So an alternative pathway is placed to sharpen the idea of how man looks at the real world and to demonstrate a unique contrast with the older goat pathway that directly symbolizes how an animal looks at and perceives the real world.

The castle is a place that provides an outstanding view of the mountains. Our intention is to question the idea of looking by invading the castle and proposing a new viewing experience through the timber cave-like ladder, from top to ground or vice versa.