DnA/Design and Architecture
This spectacular image (pictured above) shows an abandoned Chinese quarry that has been ingeniously repurposed into an open-air library, with enclosed bookshelves lining the stone and concrete staircases connecting each level to a stone plinth where people can practice calligraphy or sit and read.
Quarry No. 8 is one of nine abandoned quarries in China’s Jinyun county that the local government selected as tourist sites from among thousands of others. Until 2000, workers here had been digging for tuff, a rock formed from volcanic ash, for more than 1,300 years.
This is just one example of what happens to the abandoned mines featured in the book. 102 things you can do by digging a hole in the ground By Peter Whitbread-Abrutatt and Robert Rowe. As the world embraces green energy, many mines are expected to close, says Whitbread-Abrutatt, “but there are lots of weird, wonderful and surprising ways to reuse these sites.”
Simon Bierwald/Red Dot Design
Pictured above, the striking aluminum frame of the Audi A8, a revolution in lightweight automotive design, hangs in the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen, Germany. It’s part of the world’s largest exhibition of contemporary design, featuring nearly 2,000 pieces selected by the museum’s design awards. The snaking sections of rust-colored steel that support the building are remnants of the Zollverein coal mining complex.
The photo above shows a deep drilling site in Australia, currently home to the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory searching for dark matter. The lab is more than a kilometre underground in the remote gold mining town of Stawell, Victoria.
102 things you can do by digging a hole in the ground Available for purchase from Eden Project Online Shop.
topic:
Source: www.newscientist.com
