Two architecture students studying at ETH Zurich submitted this striking proposal for a contest held by VELUX. The theme of the contest, “Light of tomorrow”, inspired the students, Bo Li and Ge Men, to create a stunning memorial for a hypothetical Swiss Alps village buried by a landslide. The students worked with columns of transparent thermo plastic which were (hypothetically) planted in the subterranean ground. Not to be kept in the dark, the columns then extend up through the layer of earth above and into the open landscape. The cyclic link between the two “villages” is completed as sunlight travels down through the rods back to their subterranean source. Here, each thermoplastic stick is strategically sanded to create a matte surface upon which the sunlight refracts and shines out in the shape of the lost structures. Such a beautiful way to lend form to memory especially as we move forward into a new year.

Image via VELUX.