Fresh from designing The Mystery on Fifth Avenue – an architectural journey of discovery and inspiration for a New York City family of four – architect Eric Clough and his comrades at 212box launched a new project:
They call it INTO MYSTERY.
It’s a multi-year architecture project, funded through Kickstarter. It consists of 18 clues, revealed every few months, with No. 11 just unveiled. It’s a light box that uses LED lights and a battery encased in acrylic – an object that’s part desk lamp, part puzzle, and part sculpture.
It all fits into a larger scheme that will ultimately reveal itself as a monumental tower.
“So imagine buying a ticket and getting access to the Eiffel Tower with rooms that no one else has access to,” Clough says. “And then understanding that all the people in the rest of the world are united around this one central thing.”
This is no diminutive thing, either. The ultimate goal of INTO MYSTERY is to construct a 160-story tower, and offer it as a monument to inspiration, creativity and human endeavor. And it won’t be built by any government or private corporation, but by a community with a passion for puzzle solving, architecture and the future of a new creative, global community.
The project was initiated on 12/12/12, and attracted nine backers in 24 hours. Now it’s up to 156, with a more ambitious goal of 800 million. “The backers that are in are wonderful, loyal and supportive,” he says. “I have two different business plans – one where it gets done, and another where it comes down to clue 18, and we inspire 800 million people.”
If it gets built, this tower will be no inexpensive proposition. “My hope is to raise the cost of the building – $3.2 billion, plus land acquisition.”
Anticipating two to three more years of crowd-sourcing, the group is already researching sites and composition. “We’re going to ask 800 million people where they want it,” he says.
Because as Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood.”
For more, go here.
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