Life inside a glass house....

 

After touring Bioshephere 2* we determined that it would be like living inside a gigantic bottle...and yet a group of scientists did just that. They signed the contracts and went inside for a 2 year tour of duty....along with 45 species of animals/insects. It now belongs to the University of Arizona, but that only happened recently....original facility became a human-inhabited laboratory back in the early 90's.

*[ Constructed between 1987 and 1991, it was used to explore the complex web of interactions within life systems in a structure that included five areas based on biomes and an agricultural area and human living/working space to study the interactions between humans, farming and technology with the rest of nature.]
 

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Tours start at the lower level of this building, which is another level down.

 This building is the size of 3 football fields long.

  

 

 

Rain-catchers designed from children's hands dot the landscape.

Water conservation is a large part of the recycling program built into the facility. Originally, the inhabitants had no paper products - yes, that included NO tissue, toilet paper or paper towels.

 

 

 

 

One of the biomes included an 'ocean with coral reef'....Pacific Ocean water was trucked, as was the sandy beach located at the bottom end of the photo (not visible here but we were standing on it).

 

   

 

This is a huge expansion bladder aid in the distributing of heat generated with all the glass. Heat has  to go somewhere, thus. this Dupont rubber bladder with its 40 year warranty,and it is still manually checked each morning. We got to yell "Hello" once inside this room - as it acts like an echo chamber.

 

 

 

I'll close with a piece of sculpture, one of several on the grounds. There are also additional photos in a separate slideshow to the right of this piece. The tour we took was educational in the scientific as well as a social/cultural commentary on communal living, it was worth every penny of the entrance fee and half of that is tax decuctible!

 

~ Ciao