THE THRONE OF BOWMORE | an open International Design Competition

The Throne of Bowmore competition has been organized by The Duntroon Hall, a volunteer-operated historic community hall within Clearview Township, Ontario, Canada. Submissions to the competition will be exhibited and judged the weekend of October 3-5, 2014 during Clearview’s first annual Small Halls Festival. Bowmore was an earlier name for the village of Duntroon, Ontario, in reference to the administrative capital of the Isle of Islay, Scotland, from which many of the first European settlers came in the early 1800’s. Bowmore (Scotland) is famous for its scotch whiskey distillery of the same name, and is home to The Bowmore Round Church, reputedly so shaped in order that the Devil could not hide in the corners. The name Duntroon, applied to the village in the last half of the 1800’s, was derived from Duntrune Castle, 60km to the north-east of Bowmore, the longest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland, dating to the 12th Century and home to the ghost of a handless bagpiper.

THE CHALLENGE

On the estate grounds of a relocated Duntrune Castle, positioned at the top of a precipice along The Niagara Escarpment above Duntroon Ontario, an upcoming celebration on the evening of the full harvest moon requires an outdoor toilet facility. A level site is selected on the edge of a meadow, with a mature deciduous forest to the north and expansive views to the east. Visual privacy is necessary only to the south and west directions where the celebrations will be held. Shelter for the clientele (defecators, urinators, …) is required from rain and the cold north and west winds. Designers are encouraged to make use of salvaged and repurposed materials, be responsive to the historical context and the site, date and sign their creations and include a brief description of their design (maximum 200 words). The design objective is to creatively re-imagine the traditional outhouse such that it elevates the fundamental, meditative and primal act of defecating into an uplifting, remarkable and memorable experience.