Filipino architect wins design for Archstoyanie observation deck

A Filipino architect has won a competition to build an observation deck in Nikola-Lenivets, a creative cluster not far from Moscow that’s home to the Archstoyanie Festival of landscape objects. The observation deck by Royce Mar Nicdao, the director of the Manila-based WTA Architecture and Design Studio, consists of a suspended lens-shaped mirror that provides a panoramic view of the surroundings from beneath.

The project, which is called Sousveillance: Under Big Brother’s Skirt, will be unveiled at the biannual Archstoyanie Festival in the last week of July. This year’s theme is “Three Belevederes”.

Festival curator Anton Kochurkin said the construction was both sympathetic to the local surroundings and within budget. He added: “The choice was difficult but simplicity has won … The project belongs to another world, elegantly turning everything upside down.”

Previous winners of the competition include Alexander Brodsky’s Rotunda and Boris Bernaskoni’s Arch. The competition was organised jointly by the Nikola-Lenivets Project and the Archstoyanie Festival.