CHRM-MID◆Midnight Editorial
AtmosphereSartorial Silence
Accent—
Surface—
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The design atlas171 / 177 places

VUT / Stone & substance

Vanuatu

Island routes & remembered places

Develop a system from this study
Vanuatu: a tabletop material and section study exploring island routes & remembered places.
Image note

Three original interpretations of island routes & remembered places, informed by Chief Roi Mata’s Domain. These images explore material and spatial ideas; they are not documentary views or measured reconstructions of the reference. The palette is drawn from the material portrait.

Publication credit: The Chromologium.

Image credits and reuse

The colour strip is the entry’s study palette. Artwork sources and image credits and reuse terms are recorded in the archive.

Artwork record

Three views of one material idea.

Chief Roi Mata’s Domain links a residence, a place of death and a burial site across three islands. Archaeological evidence and oral traditions together sustain the meaning of these places.

Read the material study
Melanesia

01 / Reading the material

Distance is part of the place

Chief Roi Mata’s Domain connects sites across three islands through archaeology and oral tradition. The gaps of water are part of that relationship, not empty space between unrelated attractions. A single representative building would fail to describe the domain’s spatial character.

Vanuatu: an imagined spatial interpretation of island routes & remembered places.
02 / Spatial interpretationImage record

02 / From surface to space

Read the whole.
Then the edge.

Study the journey as a sequence of arrivals and departures. Each site has its own role, while the route holds them together. A diagram can preserve this relationship without claiming that distance alone explains the cultural meaning.

Study the route connecting the sites rather than inventing a single representative building. How can distance across water become part of a spatial narrative?

03 / Colour in context

A palette you can work with.

Five tones drawn from the material portrait. Select a colour, compare it on paper and ink, or copy its value into your own study.

Selected pigment / primary

Surface

#433d2d

Colour values & paper / ink comparison

oklch(0.361 0.027 89.911) · primary

One pigment. Two grounds.
VUT / 03Aa#433d2d

The colour stays fixed as its surroundings change.

Try the bench exercise

04 / At the bench

Make the observation tangible.

Make a composition of three distinct places connected across a broad field. Give the intervals deliberate proportions. Use the cited account for the sites’ meanings, keeping the formal route study separate from the oral histories themselves.

A useful record

Keep a view of the whole beside a close detail. Note the material, lighting and the one variable you changed.

Vanuatu: a tabletop material and section study exploring island routes & remembered places.
03 / Material & section studyImage record

Source & orientation

Keep the reference close.

UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (n.d.). Chief Roi Mata’s Domain. Retrieved October 10, 2026.

The material readings and bench exercise are editorial studies of this particular reference. The artwork explores its material ideas; the linked source documents the place.

Artwork & cartographic records

Artwork record · Geographic plate record. Map geometry: Natural Earth, public domain. The archive follows its map’s place names, including territories and disputed areas.

Geographic outline of Vanuatu
Vanuatu / VUTSovereign country

A closer look

Questions about this study

What does this study of Vanuatu focus on?

Chief Roi Mata’s Domain links a residence, a place of death and a burial site across three islands. Archaeological evidence and oral traditions together sustain the meaning of these places.

Where can I find the original reference?

Chief Roi Mata’s Domain, published by UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The artwork explores the reference’s material ideas; the linked source documents the place.

What could I try at the bench?

Make a composition of three distinct places connected across a broad field. Give the intervals deliberate proportions. Use the cited account for the sites’ meanings, keeping the formal route study separate from the oral histories themselves.

General Atlas inquiries