Top Architectural Marvels - the Big Bang Machine

[mountaingal]

Vanity Fair has a feature on the top architectural structures of the last 30 years. Some of them are pictured at this link.

Moden Architectural Marvels

There's one that caught my attention, the Large Hadron Collider.





this structure is actually a scientific instrument, located in a huge tunnel buried over 500 ft underground, and straddling the French/Switzerland border.

In this tunnel, physicists conduct tests where the tiniest particles known to humans is are set on a path to collide with each other. when they collide, they smash and release even smaller particles. scientists feel that this collision holds the key to understanding the big bang that created the universe, and also, created life. hence the description of the experiments as <span style="font-weight: bold">the search for the God particle</span>.

the principles behind the hadron collider were featured in the novel, Angels and Demons.

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - the Big Bang Machine



in March 2010 scientists successfully achieved the highest impact collision betwee two subatomic particles inside the Hadron Collider. The resulting heat apparently was a million times hotter than the centre of the sun.

the collider has a built in camera called ATLAS, and it photographed a number of subparticles flying off from that collision. all this exposure to the unknown has physicists terrifically excited.

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - the Big Bang Machine

the sheer human knowledge and ingenuity to create the Large Hadron Collider makes me humble and confirmed in my belief in the human mind and spirit. It's not just that the collider enables all these awe-inspiring things, it looks amazing as well.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - the Big Bang Machine

What would you say if you discover that the story they give the public is not the real one.
anything that so much is spent to create usually have other unreported and more important uses.

Remember when the Germans created the world's largest airmail fleet??

That was just before they decide to create an air-force to start a war.

The US created the story about mining the sea floor.
when all they intended to do was to create a cover to collect lost submarines both theirs and Russians.

Today they have the leastintrest it it.
Jamaica on the other hand got stuck with seabed authority that have not real function.
BP is presently destroying the oceans where is the international seabed authority??

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - the Big Bang Machine

what is the real story behind the creation of the hadron collider, dr. dudd?

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - the Big Bang Machine

Just imagine what it could do to LASER and microwave.
If most people know the extent of the develope,ent of those 2 field,we would have green peace ar their doors long time.<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MGee</div><div class="ubbcode-body">what is the real story behind the creation of the hadron collider, dr. dudd? </div></div>

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - Church of the Light in Osaka

The Church of the Light was another of the architectural marvels named by the architects in the Vanity Fair article.

when i looked at the pictures of the church, i had a hard time seeing its marvellousness. all i saw was tall concrete walls with, to be sure, a stunning cross of light cut into one wall.



this interior window seems to look out onto more wall...

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - Church of the Light in Osaka

so i looked into the story of the church, and why Tadao Ando, one of Japan's more famous architects, designed it that way.

here is a model of the church from different angles:







as you can see, once u go in the church, ur in effect enclosed in a concrete box - an experience some have described as a bit claustrophobic.

it's a relatively small building, apparently, and was built over a few years because money was constantly running out. in fact at one point the architect was prepared to do the church without a roof.

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - Church of the Light in Osaka

so, some have said the church's concrete walls are a reflection of the low budget. but the architect says he deliberately built them that way. the walls are 15 inches thick bare and are intended by the architect to <span style="font-weight: bold">isolate the worshipper from the world outside</span>. this is meant to enhance the spiritual feeling inside the church. that appears to be an eastern interpretation of christian spiritually, imo.

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - Church of the Light in Osaka

with the worshippers inside it, the building does seem less austere.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - Church of the Light in Osaka

Look like a modern bomb shelter or a pill box for ma machine gun nest.

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - St Pierre Church in France

St Pierre (St Peter's) church in Firminy France was completed in 2006 from a design created in 1965 by the great architect, Le Corbusier, who died in 1967.




i wouldn't have taken this structure for a church. look how tiny the cross seems at the top of the building.

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - Church of the Light in Osaka

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Look like a modern bomb shelter or a pill box for ma machine gun nest. </div></div>

lol! looked to me a bit like a coffin.

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - St Pierre Church in France

One architect listed only St Pierre as Firminy in his response to the question of what he thought were the top architectural marvels of the past 30 years.

it certainly is unusual in design - shaped as a cone, and, as with the church of the light, made from concrete. it's essentially two buildings in one, the lower floor intended for parish offices, and the concrete upper part housing the chapel for services.

[mountaingal]

Re: Top Architectural Marvels - St Pierre Church in France

the upper part of the building was designed to capture light through projections on the top.



the &quot;light cannons&quot; seen from the inside:


under the curved overhang on the side of the building are holes in the wall - meant, apparently to track the movements of the sun and reflect the Orion constellation. this is what the holes look like from the inside of the building.