During November 2014, A ground-breaking ceremony took place for the Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory (MEMO), a 30-metre-high stone spiral that will house an information and exhibition centre for the 860 species identified as extinct since the demise of the dodo in the 17th century. The memorial to extinct species of the present and future is designed by David Adjaye for the Isle of Portland, England.
Adjaye drawing immediately brought to mind two presidents for the design – Frank Lloyd Wright’s first Guggenheim Museum designs in the 1940s and Alexander Brodsky and Illya Utkin’s imaginary structures of the 1980s. All three follow the solitary light of the central oculus with repeating floors rise up. Wright and Adjaye utilize the infinite spiral travelling up and down in time. Broksky & Uktin and Adjaye over-etch the walls with repeating images.
David Adjaye, 2014
Frank-Lloyd-Wright, 1940s
Frank-Lloyd-Wright, Early Guggenheim, 1940s
Frank-Lloyd-Wright, 1950s
David Adjaye, 2014
Brodsky & Utkin, 1980s
Brodsky & Utkin, 1980s
Given the nature of this center as a monument to human short-sightedness and hubris, imagery of the Tower of Babel may be a more apt precedent. (e.g.,http://www.wga.hu/html_m/b/bruegel/pieter_e/06/01babel.html)
So much interesting when you are looking at the relationship between Architects design. I think the creation is very much accord for the museum object and function. I like the article.
Best
Sara