Archinect - News

Renovations complete on Einstein Tower, observatory built to represent Einstein's theory of relativity

2023-09-29T18:03:00-04:00

A solar observatory built to substantiate Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has been reopened near the German capital after a renovation project to preserve it for future generations. [...] “The Einstein Tower might no longer be at the forefront of research, but it’s not a mere museum piece [...] Following its renovation it’s probably now in a better condition than it was when it was inaugurated almost 100 years ago”

Located on Telegraph Hill in Potsdam, 16 miles southwest of Berlin, Einsteinturm (Einstein Tower) underwent a year of renovations to address its many cracks and extensive dampness, and to preserve its domed zinc roof. The restoration cost approximately $1.2 million.

The structure was built between 1920 and 1922 by German-British architect Erich Mendelsohn in collaboration with astronomer Erwin Finlay-Freundlich. The approximately 66-foot tower was designed to represent and verify Einstein’s theory of relativity. It is considered a landmark in expressionist architecture, with its lack of right angles, organic form, and curved wooden staircase. Originally planned in concrete, a lack of materials after the First World War meant it was built using stucco-covered brick.

The tower is still in operation today as a working solar observatory, run by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics (AIP). In addition, the working telescopes are the original ones installed nearly a century ago.

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World's largest astronomy museum opens in Shanghai with an interstellar design from Ennead

2021-07-12T19:42:00-04:00

A cosmic new museum is bringing out the stars in Shanghai thanks to a celestial design from Ennead.

The Shanghai Astronomy Museum opens this weekend following a five-year construction process that left client Shanghai Science and Technology Museum with a new outpost in the heart of the city’s burgeoning Lingang district.

Photo: ArchExists.

The New York-based firm’s plans for the 420,000-square-foot museum won an international competition in 2014 for its tripartite scheme comprised of a planetarium, IMAX theater, exhibitions spaces, and a new 78-foot-tall solar telescope that will make the research center the largest of its kind anywhere in the world.

Photo: ArchExists.

Sun, moon, and stars come together to make a smart reference to the three-body problem of mathematics. The curvilinear structure of the museum is meant as a reflection of the orbit of the planets themselves. The planetarium’s profile is choreographed to look like a moonrise. Heaven an...

Hawaiian Supreme Court green-lights construction of $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope

2018-11-02T13:46:00-04:00

Hawaii's Supreme Court has sided with scientists in a battle to build one of the world's largest telescopes, rejecting efforts by native Hawaiians to block its construction atop what some consider a sacred volcano. In 2015, a construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, to be built on Mauna Kea, was invalidated amid protests and court appeals, claiming the dormant volcano is sacred land that would be violated in the building process.

The embattled TMT astronomical observatory project on Mauna Kea previously in the Archinect news:

The "Stonehenge" in the Amazon reveals an unexpected ancient history

2016-12-20T18:03:00-05:00

Roughly one thousand years ago, a civilization in what is now known as the Brailizan Amazon constructed what appears to be an astronomical observation structure that, thanks to its inadvertent discovery by a tree-razing cattle ranch foreman in the 1990s, has been dubbed the area's "Stonehenge." This New York Times article explores how the structure's existence undermines the idea that the Amazon was a lush, vacant backwoods just waitin' for that first touch of human civilization. Instead, many archeaologists increasingly hypothesize that the structure was either used for ritual ceremonies or as a kind of landmark for agriculture and hunting. Archeaologists also speculate that the area hosted a cilivilzation of up to 10 million people, as evidenced by ancient road networks and settlements found nearby.

Other cool breakthroughs in archaeology thanks to architectural discoveries: