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Project Description: A Carved Landscape: A stonemason in Glenarm
The Glens of Antrim are steeped in beauty, history and legend. Glenarm is the most easterly of the nine glens, with a townscape dating back to the Norman era. The geographical significance of Glenarm as a port meant that the town was an integral location for industries such as fishing and quarrying. However, with the decline of rural industry, came the decline of Glenarm. This is epitomized by an abandoned mill building at the village entrance; an iconic form with a surrounding limestone quarry carved by both industry and time.
It is in, not on, this landscape where the project is proposed. The idea is a building for a stonemason - a craft defined by the act of carving. As the limestone has been carved on a large scale, so too will the craftsman work in a building carved into landscape. As he works below, in terraced spaces arranged around top-lit courtyards, visitors may explore above on landscaped paths that weave to elevated platforms boasting views over the sea. It is the roof, not walls, that divide public from private. The walls retain the earth to create an intense subterranean experience; an experience that allows craftsman and material to coincide.