In 2025, an international competition was launched to reimagine the Ancient Theatre of Ohrid — a UNESCO heritage site in North Macedonia, perched on the hill above the lake of the same name, with thousands of years of layered history beneath it.
The brief invited proposals to redesign the theatre's stage, its seating, the surrounding landscape, and the micro-architectures that support its life — all while honouring the site's extraordinary cultural and natural setting.
We entered the competition. As a creative studio, this was a deliberate stretch.
The Echo of the Lake.
Our proposal took the shell as a fossil, a memory of layered histories. Ohrid's lake is known as a museum of living fossils; the city itself is a palimpsest of empires — Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman.
Around this idea, we designed a continuous, curved structure that protects the ancient theatre and shapes its circulation. The scenic façade was reinstated as a gracefully arched arc, set back to widen the stage. The horizon was lifted to free the view of lake and sky from modern visual clutter. A cultural gallery, a café, a backstage area were embedded into the terrain. Stone, ceramic, light wood. An iridescent ceiling, echoing the inside of a shell.
We were named among the finalists.
