Neo Saltano : The Competition

While I was in Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, working on a project to design a Quaker Meeting House, I became fascinated with a poem by J.R.R.Tolkien entitled Kortirion among the Trees that spoke of a fading Elven town upon a hill, surrounded by trees. I explored that poem, using it as the literary springboard for my design that quarter. While the project faded quickly from memory, Tolkien’s poem did not. My personal ideas about Kortirion eventually led me to the creation of a city of my own that I began to call Neo Saltano. A few years later I tried to spark my fellow Tech graduates and some new acquaintances in the architecture world to participate in a competition to help sketch in some details about Neo Saltano, but work and a resounding lack of responses got in the way and I was forced to leave that city unexplored. But now the chance is returning. My friend Elliott has shown interest in making Neo Saltano into a January show at his Decatur gallery, one aspect of which will be an architectural design competition in various mediums. If you’re interested in participating contact the Boswell Gallery for more information and keep checking back here for the story of Neo Saltano.

5 Comments on “Neo Saltano : The Competition”

  1. Very soon!
    I’m pulling out my old materials now. Looking back through my old emails I see that I issued the first challenge in August of 2002. Neo Saltano is extensible, so much so that we’ll probably be safest limiting the design competition to a city block or to one structure. A traditional architecture school design assignment might be the best way to execute the competition, no need reinventing the wheel!

  2. Elliot Boswell gave me your name and website – I am an architect by trade, working full time for Gwinnett, and in spare time head up a non-profit called the Foundation for Community Arts. We are also interested in this exhibit and may want to talk to you about a second showing after Boswell’s. Your exhibit’s ideas may have a place in the reconstruction of Doraville in NE Atlanta. I think we should talk, as in a face to face visit, and soon.

  3. Hi John, I’ve been caught up in looking at virtual cities/worlds in Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games like Second Life because my initial challenge was very analog. I’m actively working on the hook to make this thing more interesting to attendees.

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