Kazakhstan as Xanadu
December 12th, 2006Kazakhstan is planning to build a tent large enough to cover a small indoor city.
Click here for night and day pictures of the project: http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/1438/Default.aspx
As the BBC reports,
Kazakhstan has unveiled a new architectural project for its capital Astana - a giant transparent tent that will contain an indoor city. The 150m-high (500ft) dome, designed by UK architect Norman Foster, will be built in just over a year. The tent is being made from special material that absorbs sunlight to create the effect of summer inside.
This reminds me of the famous poem “Khubla Khan, or, a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment.” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which begins,
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
The rest of the poem can be read here: http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html