 Visitors approach the Australian Opal Centre across the historic Three Mile opal field at Lightning Ridge, where Bimble Box and Wild Orange trees, ancient machines and mounds of pink and cream opal dirt create a sparsely beautiful outback landscape that echoes with a century of opal mining history. There, they discover a remarkable building by acclaimed architects Glenn Murcutt and Wendy Lewin - a building recessed into, and protected by, the earth. The complex contains magnificent permanent exhibitions, curation and education facilities, a cinema, gallery space, spectacular opal vault, a research library and laboratory and underground gardens. 100 metres long and two storeys deep, the Australian Opal Centre building uses a combination of ancient and cutting-edge modern technologies to provide its own energy, water, light and fresh air...without being connected to mains power or water.
After entering the building, visitors walk to where daylight pours in at the end of a long, gently descending ramp. There, to their amazement, they find that they are suspended in the side of an open-cut mine, with the geological strata of opal-bearing country exposed on the walls of the mine facing them.
This is the vision for the Australian Opal Centre's Three Mile building. Innovations in design, materials and processes will generate new paradigms for the future of public architecture in semi-arid Australia. The building design will conserve water and energy, minimise running costs and attract tens of thousands of visitors from around Australia and the world. Want to know more about the team designing the Australian Opal Centre building? Click here. Or to see more photos of our site, click here. Funding permitting, construction of the Australian Opal Centre will commence late in 2009. If you are interested in contributing to the AOC capital works fund, please contact us to discuss your proposal. Once site work has commenced, the project will be documented here on the Australian Opal Centre web site. Watch this space! |
