London-based architect Sam Jacob wants to transform the dome of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral into a man-made moon.
St Paul’s dome is one of the most important objects in the city, “a lead covered baroque sun around which the rest of the city revolves,” Jacob writes.
As St Paul’s was designed by astronomer and architect Christopher Wren—who also created the lunar globe (dubbed the “Selenosphere”) that accurately maps the moon’s phases, for British monarch Charles II in the 17th century—Jacob hopes the ‘man-made moon’ would create an interesting parallel between the architect’s most famous building and the lunar globe.
To be able to transform the dome into a moon, to chart the phases of the 29-day lunar cycle using the cathedral’s dome, a spotlight that moves around the base of the cathedral’s dome needs to be added.
Then the cathedral’s dome and the moon would “hover over London as though it were a city on a planet with two moons” (similar to the world in Haruki Murakami’s fantasy novel 1Q84).
“If the night was cloudy and no moon was visible then the dome could operate as a kind of lunar clock,” he told Dezeen.
“Wren’s building [would then be] transformed into a selenosphere,” Jacob said.
“St Paul’s becomes a secular device linking our earthly concerns with the heavenly realm.”
[via Strange Harvest]