The use of mirrors to bring light and warmth to isolated, cold terrain brings to mind the practice of terraforming, as chronicled in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars trilogy, which sees the freezing desert tundra of Mars transformed into a life-hosting environment. With the 2013 installation of giant mirrors to bring longed-for light to the Norwegian valley town of Rjukan during the winter months, it appeared that the terraformed future had arrived. However, the idea of the Solspeil (sun mirror) was actually born in 1913, when entrepreneur Sam Eyde returned to his native Norway following a spell as a railway engineer in Germany, and founded the company now known as Norsk Hydro. Established in 1905 as an industrial centre utilising the hydro-power potential of the Rjukanfossen waterfall, Rjukan already has a rich architectural history as a planned “company town”. Planetary-scale terraforming may still be some way off, but the Solspeil has given cause for celebration here in its hometown, which following this feat of illumination engineering, looks set to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015. I (fs)
Photo: Erik Johansen, picture alliance / NTB Scanpix
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