The initial phase of this project culminated in a device for a visit to Mount Etna. The device responds to historical engagement with mountainous landscapes and applies this as a means of fostering a grounded emotional experience for the visitor.

As an alternative to data-driven understandings of landscapes as signifiers of climate change, this project aims to restore the emotional connection between the mountain and the mind. This emotional engagement is used as a protective measure to remove the physical pressures of tourism from fragile mountain environments. A remote, alternative landscape is proposed in the town Zafferana Etnea to act as a pressure valve with the aim to reduce touristic impact on the important summit site. The proposed architecture exists as a series of architectural and landscape interventions situated along a new network of paths leading up the mountain, used to amplify specific qualities of the mountainous landscape in the mind of the visitor.