Wyld’s Great Globe:
Following Richard Coyne’s post on Panoptic Man http://richardcoyne.com/2012/02/25/panoptic-man/
I thought it might be useful to post the following remarks about Panorama buildings.
For my wife’s 60th birthday, in 2007, we took our two sons and their partners to the Hague mainly to see the Netherlands Dance Theatre perform in their Rem Koolhaas designed headquarters.
Whilst there we came across the Mesdag Panorama.
Mesdag Panorama
Although it is only a couple of miles from Scheveningen this shows the beach there with some great theatrical features like piles of real sand all viewed from a central circular bandstand type platform that cleverly clips the sky and the immediate foreground.
http://panorama-mesdag.com/home?id=920#
O2 Memory Project
In 2008 our youngest architect son Gabby produced this Panorama inspired project shown here in Edinburgh, installed outside the Royal Academy.
“This demountable touring installation was commissioned by O2 to coincide with the launch of their Bluebook technology. Inspired by a pre-cinema building, The Cyclorama, this building captures its location for a period of time. The drum continuously photographs the 360 degree panoramic view outside and displays it across a halo of screens inside. As viewers approach the screens their proximity moves the image forward and back in time. Using this intuitive haptic interface visitors can travel back in time to see historic views of the same location. The captured visual history was also broadcast online for remote viewing.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7355777.stm
W Hotel, Leicester Square
Gabby has also been involved recently in the upgrading of the former Swiss Centre in Leicester Square into the W Hotel.
“The ever-changing London skyline is captured by cameras mounted on the W Hotel roof in Leicester Square, London. Animated panoramic views of the last 24 hours are recreated across 600 lights diffused through specially designed fritted glass. The building façade is transformed by night into a digital light sensitive canvas.”
Barker’s 1792 Edinburgh Panorama was moved to Leicester Square in 1793.
Generally Leicester Square seems to have been the home or final resting place of several other Panorama including the splendid Wyld’s Great Globe.
Incidentally the W Hotel is named for Wyld and contains a Wyld Night Club and Bar.
Wyld’s Great Globe
grahamshawcross.com 