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Planet Earth Galleries - Earth Centre
Earth Centre is now closed.
Earth Centre closed in October 2004. Earth Centre is now in administration and
is no longer open to the public. |
Planet Earth Galleries
These immense galleries, a Feilden Clegg design, are built into the hillside at
the foot of a limestone escarpment. The façade is local magnesian limestone,
quarried at Cadeby, the same stone that was used to build Conisbrough Castle.
The whole of the Earth Centre site and the surrounding area can be viewed from
the roof of the Galleries.
The galleries are the largest underground (or cut-and-cover) building a visitor
is likely to experience. An interesting feature, which the visitor does not see,
is the labyrinth underneath the galleries. The labyrinth combines the idea of
the Roman hypocaust with contemporary environmental modelling techniques. It
acts as an effective temperature regulator, keeping temperatures comfortable in
summer and winter. Two photographic representations of the labyrinth were made
by Helen Sear for Photo 98 and hang in the Entrance Gallery to the building.
Planet Earth Galleries house two major exhibitions, Planet Earth Experience and
Action for the Future.
Planet Earth Experience
The Planet Earth Experience takes place in an immense, dark gallery space. It
conveys a simple message: the world is a wonderful place full of beauty and
life, but something is wrong. The way we live on earth is rapidly destroying the
natural systems upon which we depend. Through this Experience visitors can
explore the ever-changing balance between people, nature and technology.
Planet Earth Experience is the world's first "cyberhenge". Henges of standing
glass hold sculptures representing life on earth, figures that survive
everything that happens in the room. Giant, cracked, glowing globes symbolise
threats to the earth.
In this unsettling, unpredictable world, theatrical visions unfold with the use
of lights, projections and prisms. Music and sound are part of the experience.
An installation of Solar Spectrum Art bathes the visitor in intense rainbow
colours. It is a powerful, optimistic experience to symbolise the possibility of
a fantastic future - a sustainable future - in the new Millennium.
Designed by an inspiring team of international artists working under the name
30/70, Planet Earth offers a compelling theatrical experience in which the
visitor becomes a player in the great global challenge of a sustainable future
Action for the Future
A dramatic contrast to the dark space of the Planet Earth Experience, Action for
the Future is a light, bright, optimistic space. It completes the story within
the Planet Earth Galleries with a multitude of ideas and visions for a
sustainable future. In the centre of the room is a huge table model that tells
the story of Earth Centre and the surrounding area.
There are many inspirational examples of sustainable practices that people are
putting into action around the world, making sustainability a part of their
lives. In this gallery sustainability is divided into sixteen categories, each
with an animated installation or "icon" to represent it. When visitors explore
the rest of the site they will encounter these sixteen themes in a variety of
combinations in everything they see.
‘Magic’ windows invite the visitor to see a “fantastic future” at home, in a
city, country and planet-wide as visions of regeneration and sustainable futures
are revealed.
The exhibition, designed by OPERA, a company based in Amsterdam, is intended to
prepare visitors for the remainder of the site and to prompt them to think about
sustainable actions they could take at home. |
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There were some pictures of the biosphere and how it was created and
evolved. We found out that drinking water is 3 billion years old. We found out about
volcanoes. We saw pictures that showed us that England might get really really cold by
2060.
We also watched a cool film in the little cinema all about penguins and
monkeys and fish. It made us laugh when the animals did funny things. |
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Find the Fossil
We pretended we were palaeontologists looking for fossils in the rock. We
found an ichthyosaur, and used a brush to clean away the sand.
Earth Centre used to be a coal mine called Cadeby Colliery, and coal was
dug out. Fossil plants and animals were often found in the coal measure rocks.
The mine has closed now. |
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On the way though to the Earth Story, we saw this really massive picture
showing the Earths Crust, and then all the way to the Earth's core. The Earth is really
big.. |
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John told us that in The Earth Story Gallery, it is like the earth
is speaking to us, and as we go through, we can hear the messages which it is saying. It
is saying 'Look after me'. It uses the 4 ancient elements of earth, air, fire and
water and explores the link between man, nature and technology. |
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There were some massive plastic globes which made us think of pollution
and some of the bad things we are doing to nature and the environment. |
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There was a spectacular sound and light show which showed us
travelling
down to Earth from outer space and then a look at the biosphere & the natural world,
and then back out from the Earth Centre, through the Solar System and beyond the Milky
way. It was very exciting and a bit scary when the thunder and lightning crashed &
flashed around us. |
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There were some huge massive glass monoliths revolving around the
Earth's core. They had some weird shapes of animals, like elephants, inside them. They
looked like some animals which have become extinct. Lots of lights kept changing colour
and we really liked it. |
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We had to walk carefully across a bridge of lights. It is the bridge
that crosses over to the sustainable future. It moves slightly and lights flicker. It
represents the fragile habitats and ecosystems of earth. We were given the choice between
an unsustainable future, which might happen if humans keep using up the earth's resources,
or a unsustainable future if we change our behaviour and use science in a positive way. |
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This is us walking over the bridge to the sustainable future. |
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Next we went into this big room which had pictures of a coal mine and a
huge table which was a map of Earth Centre and the Dearne Valley. It told us that
Earth
Centre tries to use sustainable materials and methods and the whole site has been
regenerated.
There were big pictures with solar energy, wave energy, geo
energy, thermal energy and wind energy. There was a
big metal globe which goes round with lights in and some black boards to draw with chalks
and a big crossword puzzle. It was fun. |
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Cadeby Colliery. This is now Earth Centre. |
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