Arqueología del Futuro: POST BIBLE ARCHITECTURE Searching for Noah's Ark. A theoretical architectural object.

3.8.13

POST BIBLE ARCHITECTURE Searching for Noah's Ark. A theoretical architectural object.

“And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.

"And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.”

Genesis 6:14-16

The story of the flood is closely connected with the story of the creation, a cycle of creation, un-creation, and re-creation, in which the ark plays a pivotal role. Judeo, Christian and Muslim religions agree with the Noah's Ark existence and too many people have tried to turn the sacred description of the ark into a real architectural object. Shipbuilders like Peter Jansen and his 1/4 scale ark built in 1609 or the Scottish merchant Livern in 1694, trying to demostrate the vessel’s stability. Religious like Athanasius Kircher drawing the internal corridors of the ark and distribuing the animals and food for a low center of mass, yet minimal handling in XVII century. Artists like Elfred Lee involved in the search for Noah's Ark remains at Mount Ararat from 1969 to 2001. All of them have generated a collective architectural knowledge around the hypothetical Noah’s Ark.

Nowadays, ideas like Mayan prophecies have aroused a new interest for the Ark and real size replicas of the myth have spread with different types of iconicity. In May 2009, Noah’s Ark Park, operated by Christian organisations based in Hong Kong, was opened to the public. There’s one similar park in Philippines, at at Kamay ni Hesus Lucban Town. Restaurants, zoo visitor centers or houses making copies of Noah’s Arks in different scales all over the world, even Greenpeace rebuilt Noah's Ark as a warning on climate change in 2009. Past year, John Huibers finished his own Noah’s Ark like the Biblical original at Netherland (we will try to visit it during this Summer School) and he wrote to London Mayor Boris Johnson to ask for permission to moor it in the capital during the Olympic Games. Axe Commercial said goodbye to the mayan year with a Noah’s Ark commercial ”Have a happy end of the world”, with a young man that built his own ark for being filled with sexy girls. A full-size Noah's Ark will be built in Kentucky Biblical Park in 2014 and maybe two replicas in Florida and Armenia too. “Noah” wil be an upcoming biblical epic film directed by Darren Aronofsky.and it is set to be released in theaters on March 28, 2014...

Searching for Noah's Ark!!!!