Georgia is a country of contrasts. Driving from Kutaisi in the east to Tiblisi in the west, the towering Soviet era monuments are hard to miss. They echo a bygone time and reflect the country's changing identity. It is a country grappling with its past; the Stalin Museum in Gori exists in contradiction to young people who are now expanding Georgian culture into new avenues. A divide can be felt between those who believed in the USSR and those who saw the disbandment of the USSR as a liberation. These contrasts between new and old are key to the purpose of the building proposition, which is to provide a space for artists from Tskaltubo, many of whom are internally displaced people, to express themselves and their story.

The building proposal is to break and fragment the Soviet era ruin on the site. This is intended to demonstrate an ownership of the country’s Soviet past, forcibly cutting away and replacing parts of the crumbling ruin with new Georgian elements, stylistically informed by both the country’s traditional styles and more modern Georgian art. Like the country’s architectural topology, the building should reflect a patchwork of old and new, refined and rough.