The Balance Game (2021)
International Competition Entry
Team: Sungmin Kim
To observe one another is to live together. Once, all speciesβin their most primitive and untamed formsβcould be seen side by side. This, however, is a concept largely lost in modern times. Human greed has intervened, and the most one-sided forms of captivity and intrusion have become the primary ways of looking at animals, giving birth to zoos with metal cages and safari tours that cut through nature. The Lagoon of Orbetello is one of the few places on Earth that remains relatively intact, preserved from this brutality.
The observatory watchtower proposed here is not only for watching beautiful birds in flight; it is also for observing and monitoring the environment. Through its monitoring functions, the observatory tracks surrounding ecological factors such as turbidity, salinity, bioavailable chemicals, and wildlife pathogens. It restricts the area accessible to visitors and does not become fully operational until scientists and visitors work together to βearn backβ their place by learning about and preserving the site. Only when this reconciliation occurs does the observatory truly come alive, allowing visitors and fauna to observe and coexist with one another, fully immersed in the sheer beauty of Orbetello.