Using the landscape of the Museum as a test site, the V&A invited nineteen architects to submit proposals for structures that examine notions of refuge and retreat. Responding to specific locations in the Museum, the architects explored themes such as study, work, play, performance and contemplation. Seven of the proposals were then selected for construction at full-scale.

These projects promoted an attitude to architecture where to 'dwell' meant something more than simply to find shelter. Each building invited the participation of the viewer. These immersive environments reawakened people's ability to inhabit architectural space on both a physical and an emotional level.

This project evokes the sights, smells and textures of summer. At the heart of the structure is a meditation chamber. Visitors would enter it barefoot, so feeling the sea of barley grain that floods the room. They might then lie down in the bathtubs and enjoy a view of the suspended upside-down barley fields, swaying gently in an artificial breeze.