Cosmic Rings of Cern, Geneva, Switzerland
In development 2008+ (with Jencks2 and GroupH)
Green Oasis, landforms and underground buildings for CERN. The design surrounds The Globe and protects it from the high speed traffic to its south, providing a buffer to noise and industrial landscape impinging from any side. To communicate the discoveries at Cern we have developed two iconographic programmes. One concerns a circular walk of mounds around the edge of the site based on the cosmic uroboros. These also depict the units of the universe at all sizes growing from the tiniest objects to the universe as a whole. This 'ring' relates to a 27 kilometre underground accelerator and the fact that the universe has architectural structure from the quark to the great wall of gallaxies. The second set of symbols present the everyday collisions of the accelerator as a striking icon, which relates directly to the measuring instruments that surround the explosions. Also it is a good analogy of the eye which measures the universe - a new eyeconology.
Artist impression of Cern by Madelon Vriesendorp
The Cosmic Uroboros and Midgard
Uroboros in Space-Time becomes Cosmic Ring
Plan showing the Cosmic Ring surrounding the Globe
The Cosmic Ring and the Cosmic Eye - the basis for a new Cern iconography