I picked up this story from the Daily Telegraph Online Newspaper in the UK today. Keilder water, a large reservoir and commercial forestry area has traditionally been an area for outdoor sports and walking following a nationally famous art exhibition trail. However, it's not the art that is exciting, rather the award to Charles Barclay Architects for the design and construction of a public access observatory.
The observatory is located in one of the darkest locations in the UK, check out the dark skies map and see that only mid and west Wales and the highlands and islands have darker skies. From the Keilder Observatory web site: "The winning design has been likened to the 'deck of a ship sailing above the Kielder landscape'; it's planned that eager astronomers will be able to visit the observatory at its rugged hilltop location in the heart of rural Northumberland (North East of England) in late 2006. Kielder has been recognised as one of the best places to view the stars in the United Kingdom due to its pitch-black and pollution-free skies. The development of Kielder 'Observatory' is being funded by the Northumberland Strategic Partnership and the Northern Rock Foundation with support from the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and Arts Council England. Once completed, this unique facility will be used by specialist and amateur astronomers, scientific researchers and as a learning resource for education workshops".
In addition to this cutting edge development, there is also a camera obscura type installation by artist, Chris Drury. This building is made of locally sourced stone and is cone shaped to take the reflected image from an externally facing mirror. The final installation in a same vein is that of artist James Turrell who has also constructed in local stone, a beehive style building that is open to the sky. It focuses your senses on the sky which is framed by the tapering edges of the building.
I'll be in Northumberland in 2008, I'll certainly be visiting these installations.
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