Young Architects Competitions is inviting designers to submit proposals for a complex of observatory houses, located in the grounds of Italy's Roccascalegna castle.
The ideas-based Observatory Houses competition tasks designers and architects with creating a "place of spirituality and meditation" for those wanting to move away from the busy, overcrowded cities.
Both professional architects and designers, and students are encouraged to enter the competition.

"Observatory Houses wishes to promote an architectural intervention that aims at becoming a destination for those who wish to move away from their everyday routine and live an archaic, almost mystic experience," said organiser Young Architects Competitions (YAC). "It will not be a place of mere observation or accommodation; it will be a place of spirituality and meditation."
Designers are asked to find a clever way of integrating the Observatory Houses into their historic site, a medieval fortress in the Municipality of Roccascalegna.
The houses should also incorporate elements that allow for stargazing ? the activity that led YAC to choose the Roccascalegna area as the focus for the competition in the first place.
"There are still places that are far from lights and cities where ?the beauty of the infinite sky appears in its entire splendour," said YAC.

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