The project titled 'In Honour of Home and Homeland', is an exploration into the integrated sense of being we feel within our natural environment. This observes the contemporary notion of 'House as Home', which reflects our personal intimate sacred spaces, and 'Land as Home' which forms the unique bind between the personal and the communal.

In the global context of today this is an issue of major exploration. Most people today don't build their own houses; people tend to move from house to house, from place to place; an extreme example of which is moving from one side of the world to the other. In the contemporary world everyone is everywhere and questioning our place of identity and belonging has become central. Therefore it seems to me that the concept of home is undergoing significant changes.

The major aim of the project is to create and design a 'place' as an artistic installation in a public space, engaging people from the local community in its construction. The experience within that place will raise questions and issues related to our sense of place and belonging - of 'Home' and 'Homeland'.

My plan is to build a structure, the size of a room (more or less) to be placed on a plot of land in a suburban neighbourhood of Launceston. The site will be occupied as a construction site for several months so to present the curiosity of "something happening" and the anticipation to "what is happening" and open a door for the local community to engage in" the happening". The structure will employ mostly local natural materials predominately earth, clay. The interaction of the structure with its site, its external visual impact will invite to experience an internal space descending underground into the earth which may evoke another contemplative condition opened to be experienced by individual pondering or by communal gathering. I intend to invite local artists, students from the School of Architecture as well as people of the broader community in Launceston, Tasmania, to participate in the discussion. Their involvement will be through taking part in certain aspects of the design and in the physical construction of the 'place' (dwelling).

Stages of the process from the time of having access to a site:

1. Pit in the ground - to be dug and reinforced with used car tires and fenced for safety, if required.

2. Shell of the dome - will be designed with students from the school of architecture throughout the first semester of 2005 and will then be assembled and erected on top of the pit.

3. Rendering w/earth - engaging community in this phase of the construction. The technique which will be used for rendering will be explored while designing the shell.

4. Outside/ inside - the "frame" as an iconic symbol of a house to be placed externally to the dome. This as well will be explored alongside the development of the shell according to the suggested models below. Arranging electricity for lighting inside will also be part of this stage.

5. Finishing phase - my intimate work in the place to position the "small worlds" in niches in the earth +placing illuminated pillars of light. Cleaning of site.

Hopefully the whole process will end by Feb. /March 2006 and then the process of dismantling, and clearing the site to its original state will be managed.

* here are initial sketches, sections and an image which gives a visual illustration of what the project may look like on site.

Model - 1

Model - 2

section of dome coming through the earth (section)

	View of inside
The dome is planned to be approx. 6m in diameter. The pit will be going underground approx. 1.5 - 2m in depth, with a walking path leading to the bottom of it. The porcelain pillars of light will be approx. 2.5 m high.