Like a rolling stone! is a small architectural device that supports the on-going regeneration of Bormida Valley in Italy.

The architectural device is located in nine villages across the valley offering nine points to re-connect with local landscapes and learn about the history and the ecology of the valley. The main feature of the design is the geometry, which makes it possible to create nine unique configurations with one single form.

The inspiration comes from a simple story we used to learn as children, the first time we encountered the river. It is the story of the stone that, transported downstream by the river, evolves and shapes its form. With the same principle, the observatory “rolls” from village to village, taking on nine different configurations and nine different relationships with the typical features of the landscape – framing one time the river, another the sky, the hills, the vineyards, the forest, the horizon.

From an architectural point of view, the device has an irregular polyhedral shape derived from the facet of a 4x4x4m cube and composed of 7 faces. Each face can serve as a support base and offer a different configuration to the entire geometry. The structure is composed of a load-bearing wooden skeleton, with supporting joists and a sub-structure used to attach the outer cladding. The latter consists of light natural wood strips running parallel to the geometry of the polyhedron. Depending on the face chosen as the support base, the outer cladding is interrupted to create openings and landscape frames. In each observatory a large map of the Bormida will tell us where we are and what configuration we are experiencing.

TYPE: Observatory
LOCATION: Bormida Valley, Italy
YEAR: 2022
TEAM: Alberto Roncelli, Nicole Vettore