YCJ Studio
©YCJ Studio - All Rights Reserved009 → Where the Ground Listens
Reuse the Temple
Reuse Italy - Third Prize
Team: Yanci Chen, Jing Chen
Where the Ground Listens reimagines the unfinished temple of Madonna delle Cataste as a space of resonance where memory, nature, and community converge. Drawing inspiration from the Doppler effect, the temple becomes a fixed point of origin, a historical voice anchored in time. From this center, the landscape unfolds like a ripple. Sculpted soil formations extend outward in waveform-like contours, transforming the hillside into a natural amphitheater.
This transformation is both physical and symbolic. At the summit, a carved listening circle invites visitors to gather, reflect, and per-form. In this space, the land itself becomes an instrument, actively receiving and amplifying presence.
Instead of completing the temple in a traditional sense, the design embraces its unfinished state. The original brick structure is com-pleted using glass bricks of the same size, preserving its fragmentary appearance. This approach freezes the building in its moment of incompletion. The transparency and refraction of the glass allow the surrounding landscape to enter the temple visually, blending architecture with nature.
By grounding the intervention in soil and sound, the project honors the temple’s legacy through resonance rather than completion. In listening, we remember. In gathering, we rebuild, not by starting over, but by engaging with what remains.