A number of studies and reports surface everyday justifying how some species went extinct and how several of them are gravely endangered. While scientists are figuring out ways to conserve what is left of our natural and biological heritage, architects have found their own way to pay a tribute to the already extinct species.
A new observatory, Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory (MEMO), is slated to come up in the island of Portland, England, that will have images of extinct species carved in its walls, plus, there will be space for carvings of species that will become extinct in a few years.
MEMO is a charitable project that aims to acknowledge species that once made earth a more beautiful place. The monument will be a spiral stone structure that will have images of 850 genuses that have been wiped away, starting from the demise of the Dodo in the 17th century. The project is being developed by acclaimed architecture team of David Adjaye Associates and ARUP engineers. Check out renderings of the project, here.
Each plate will portray the time frame when the species went extinct. Not only will the exterior of the building feature images of the species but the interiors will also have stone sculptures of them, placed in the circular route that will lead up to the observatory on the topmost floor.
According to the MEMO website:
MEMO will be built on the Isle of Portland on the south coast of Britain. Here, amidst the limestone landscape from which so much of the cityscape of central London has been quarried, MEMO will stand as a global monument overlooking the UNESCO Jurassic Coast - the World Heritage Site where the story of life is already written in stone.
While the thought of reserving space for the to-be extinct species might seem a little pessimistic, it is more of a realistic notion. There are about 5734 varieties of endangered plants and animals.
The day isn't far when "homo sapiens" become an extinct species too. Check out what Tim Smit, the co-founder and Chief executive of the Eden Project in London has to say about the project.
