DESIGN INTENT

The goal is to create a sensual viewing experience in which the viewer has to approach and press the eye up to a peep hole to get a glimpse of the solar and lunar events that occur along the horizon. Through this type of viewing you not only see what the ancient civilization saw but you also smell and touch the stone in which they built their great buildings. The peeps are formed of iron like the ore which is found natural though out the area, when formed it creates a natural tube which is now being depicted as the peep hole for viewing.

HISTORY

From AD 850 to 1250, Chaco was a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area--unlike anything before or since.  Chaco is remarkable for its multi-storied public buildings, ceremonial buildings, and distinctive architecture.  These structures required considerable planning, designing, organizing of labor, and engineering to construct.  The Chacoan people combined many elements: pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture--one that still awes and inspires us a thousand years later.
NPS.GOV

USE AND SOCIAL AGENDA
Focusing on the research by Anna Sofaers Solstice Project the aim of the project would be to allow for physical interaction and observance of the advanced cosmological knowledge of the Chaco culture through the design of an Observatory Pavilion.

PROGRAM
Cosmological event viewing pavillion. The purpose of which would be to experience the solar and lunar events that were believed to be the driving force behind much of the architecture of the Chacoan culture. The experience would be both visual and sensual.

TECHNOLOGY/MATERIALS
Sandstone and iron will be the primary materials. The project would utilize technology to sculpt space i.e. water jet cutting and sand blasting quarried sandstone. This process would simulate the erosion and be representational of the landscape found within the area.

COSMOLOGY

The Solstice Project asked if the fourteen major buildings were oriented to the sun and moon at     the extremes and mid-positions of their cycles—in other words, the meridian passage, the solstices and the equinoxes, and the lunar major and minor stand stills. The rising and setting azimuths for these astronomical events at the latitude of Chaco Canyon are given in Figure 9.5. (The angles of the solstices, equinoxes, and lunar standstills are expressed as single values taken east and west of north as positive to the east of north and negative to the west of north.)
In the clear skies of the high desert environment of the San Juan Basin, the Chacoans had nearly continuous opportunity to view the sun and the moon, to observe the progression of their cycles, and to see the changes in their relationships to the surrounding landscape and in patterns of shadow and light.

CLIMATE

Chaco Canyon, at an elevation of 6175 feet, is located in a high desert environment that receives 8.74 inches of rainfall annually. The weather in Chaco is changeable and unpredictable.  Temperatures can fluctuate wildly in a twenty-four hour period.  Come prepared for all conditions and you’ll have a great experience.