#Propose doomsday vault archive

And there are stark warnings that the genetic diversity stored within this vault will be needed to feed an ever increasing population in an increasingly harsh environment.įor the 'PBS NewsHour,' I'm John Bevir in Svalbard, deep in the Arctic Circle.

A Syrian gene bank destroyed by civil war withdrew its deposits from the vault in 2015, regrew them, and returned new seeds in their place.Īfter 15 years, the number of seed varieties and the countries putting them in continues to grow. In particular, the moon’s lava tubes and lunar pits may be the ideal place to build the modern-day Noah’s Ark, similar to Svalbard’s famous Doomsday Seed Vault, but in a. The remoteness of the vault also helps protect it from other manmade problems. The moon may not be an ideal location for easy access, but it does have the advantage of being far away from the doomsday view that can float our planet. The Norweigian archipelago Svalbard is home to ice caves, sled dogs, and even polar bears, but what it’s. The Global Seed Vault ensures those seed samples are always available. Inside the plan to build a doomsday bank of bacteria. But a lot of the work done in gene banks is aimed at providing food security for at-risk populations. Though opened in 2008 by the Norwegian Government and then Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (now the acting chief of NATO), the idea of stockpiling copies of seed varieties in this way traces back to the 1980s, and an American. Bread containing that wheat is now found in high-end bakeries across the world. In the Photo: One of the art installations at the entrance to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. He quickly worked out that, although it made fantastic bread, the yield was quite low, and it grew so tall that it was difficult to harvest.īut with that height comes incredibly deep roots, and it turns out that Oland's wheat is drought-tolerant. In the 1990s, a plant breeder took some seeds from the Nordic gene bank in the hope of reintroducing this wheat. This flour contains Oland's wheat, a once long-forgotten Swedish variety. There are more than 1,700 gene banks in the world, all trying to improve what we eat. This vault aims to be entirely apolitical, and operates on the belief that diverse genetic resources are an asset for humanity. Of an estimated 6,000 plant species humans have eaten, just nine are now common, and three, wheat, rice and maize, provide around half of all the calories consumed globally. The proposal harmoniously integrates itself into the landscape, while providing safe storage facilities for the sustainability of food diversity for future generations.We live in a world of mass farming, where fewer staples are being grown. They are highly controlled and sensitive environments that greatly benefit from the dense enclosure the subterranean location provides. 1 / 14 The Doomsday Vault Nestled deep within the Arctic Circle on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Svalbard archipelago, the Global Seed Vault stands as one of humanity’s.

The more private programs are located below grade, such as the labs and seed storage.

The building then ramps downward in a cyclical manner, thus embedding itself into the earth much like seeds rooting themselves in soil. The lobby at the center of the curved form is completely transparent, allowing one to view the oceanscape beyond while approaching the structure. The roof is occupiable and allows for a heightened view of the park while acting as an extension of an existing walking trail. The existing landscape gently lifts off the ground by means of a sloping green roof to accommodate the ground floor below. In order to minimize interruption of views across the natural scenery, the building is deeply integrated into the site. This proposal is located at a cliff overlook in a vast California National Park. The program engages with concepts of containment, collection, organization, and study of seeds as a means to preserve and promote food diversity for future generations.

#Propose doomsday vault archive

The Seed Vault is an archive of the living environment that operates at a variety of scales - ranging from the intimate relationship between one person experimenting with a single seed, to the vast quantity and space required to store hundreds of thousands of seeds for food sustainability.