Pillars of Yearning
Proposal for DeTour Design Festival 2025, Hong Kong

The installation Pillars of Yearning will greet and invite visitors to reflect on the duality of structure versus nature, ambition versus erosion, pride versus nostalgia. Eight 3-meter-tall gabion columns, filled with crushed granite form a tholo - a sacred architectural space that once marked gathering, remembrance, and reverence. A bed of loose granite at the circular base elevates this installation into a visual, tactile and sonic experience. The pillars mirror the ambitions of ancient civilisations and modern societies alike: to extract, to structure, to impose meaning upon the wild. The stones murmur with memory; the structure yearns for the organic unity it disrupts. Visitors are prompted to consider what has been gained and what has been lost in our pursuit of dominance over the natural world. This installation is a monument to yearning—yearning not only for progress, but for reconnection. When mastering nature, what part of ourselves have we caged?