The Seed Cathedral
Have you see this? The Seed Cathedral? I just came back across it after it was named one of the top 50 inventions of 2010 by Time Magazine, and it is indeed pretty amazing. The “cathedral,” designed by architect Thomas Heatherwick, was Britain’s contribution to the Shanghai World Expo, which had a theme of “Better City, Better Life.”
Its facade is constructed from 60,000 fiber optic rods, which filter light into the interior in the day time and radiate light outward at night. During the day, this light illuminates the different seeds at the end of each of the 60,000 rods. The seeds were provided by Millenium Seedbank project, which has an aim of collecting the seeds of 25% of the world’s species by 2020, and after the building is taken apart, the rods are going to be distributed to schools around China and the UK as a legacy of the project.
The rods are also able to sway gently in the breeze, making the entire building look like a giant dandelion. The video below shows this, as well as really cool views of the interior of the space all lit up. It’s pretty amazing!
For more info on the mission of the project and its construction, go here.