Moving Mountains - Carl Fredrik Svenstedt Architects

Building in stone implies carving a mountain. The results are imposing and profound, creating a presence with self-evident materiality. With stone extracted from Roman quarries, the resulting buildings occupy a temporality resonant with the landscape.

Moving mountains is nonetheless a near Herculean task. Getting there requires teamwork, engagement, and perseverance. It also requires intuition to lead the way. The poetry of a pile of stone is how it embodies an idea or an emotion. The sun warms the surface of the walls, soft as sand. Visitors can measure themselves against the human scale of the blocks, close enough to be touched. It is a meeting of the senses. What remains are the pines, the vines and the mountain.