A Celestial Nest by Atelier Yokyok Lands on a Former Farm in Eastern Portugal — Colossal

On a promontory in eastern Portugal overlooking the Hispano-Portuguese plateau and the gorges of the Rio Erges, a spherical installation sits amid brush and old stone walls. A project of Paris-based studio Atelier Yokyok, “Ninho Globo” is made of a local black rock called schist. The material lends a dramatic effect in contrast to the sky and the windswept area of Salvaterra do Extremo, a town nestled in this rocky area bordering Spain.

Atelier Yokyok is a four-person design studio founded by architects Samson Lacoste and Luc Pinsard and joined by Laure Qaremy and Pauline Lazareff. Evocative of Andy Goldworthy’s slate interventions in the form of portals and cones, “Ninho Globo” evokes a nest, a planet, or a giant seed pod tumbling through the landscape. Its title translates from Portuguese to mean “globe nest,” and its stark, otherworldly beauty challenges how we think about places of comfort and safety.

“Ninho Globo” inhabits a former pig farm, where numerous walled pens known as furdas have been constructed from dry stone on a natural granite base. “It creates a small landscape strongly shaped by human intervention and endowed with heritage and archaeological significance,” says a statement. The installation invites visitors to step inside and pause, meditate on material and the surrounding environment, or simply get out of the wind.

Atelier Yokyok chose a sphere to evoke celestial bodies and “an awareness of the planet as a shared place,” the team says. “It recalls its mineral origins…It embodies both stability and potential movement, gravity and balance. It conveys a sense of permanence, while engaging the body of those who experience it in a physical and spatial relationship.”

The pavilion is bisected by a deep, jagged space that the studio refers to as “The Canyon,” mirroring its rugged surroundings and creating a unique tension between its function as a shelter. Its goal is open-ended. “Is it a nest or a planet?…Can it be used? It challenges our relationship to the common good: how can it be used responsibly so that it endures? Who will come after us?”

See more on Atelier Yokyok’s Instagram.