Khushali Chawda

Obsolescence to un-obsolescence, the opportunity to repurpose and re-imagine an obsolete interior/ architecture was the emergence of the Clouds Observatory. The site is a subterranean reservoir in Greenwich Park, and the proposed programme is that of an Observatory for Clouds. An interesting juxtaposition of using a space that is subterranean to observe something in the sky. The close proximity to the Royal Observatory provided an opportunity for it to be intervened into as an observatory.

As Rabindranath Tagore puts it, “Clouds come floating into my lift, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.” The journey is programmed in a way to let you appreciate, experience and observe clouds, a step by step process to immerse oneself completely into the beauty of clouds. Watching clouds is known as a day dreamer’s science, this project aims to make people enjoy the beauty of the cumulus to cumulonimbus. It is an attempt to encourage people to pause for a moment from their busy lives in the city and look up and either choose to identify the category of clouds or build castles in the clouds. As G.K. Chesterton said, “There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.”