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Without here or there, the dawn over Gibraltar

Part 2 Project 2005
Stefano Rabolli Pansera
Harvey Warren
Architectural Association London | UK
The project reacts to the spatiality of Gibraltar with its rock that divides the slope of the former water catchment in the East, from the city on the West.
From the observation of an atmospheric phenomenon on the site, a vision is developed.
The water catchment becomes a light catchment that produces a halo over the rock and makes the dawn visible in the city.
On a physical level the intervention consists of a diffractive surface, in which rhombic dodecahedrons fit into a hexagonal grid and introduce several angles for the diffraction of the sun light during the morning hours.

Stefano Rabolli Pansera
Harvey Warren


Cinematic architecture deals with a space where positions are denied by time.
The challenge is to transform materiality into related spatio-temporal manifestations.
The former water catchment of Gibraltar gains a new meaning as light catchment: a complex surface that diffracts the natural light producing a halo over the rock. The resulting appearance denies the opposition between the different sides of the rock and subjects the life of the city to an enduring transformation. As the rock is dematerialized, the city experiences a new kind of dawn. This is a thoughtful project where conceptual and technical speculations integrate each other.

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2005
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