Monuments of architecture and creators of the transcendence - Cenotaphs of Doom (Part 7)

(Images: Svalbard Global Seed Vault.  TIME magazine and seedvault.no)

It's hard to imagine what an extinction event may entail and of course one has to be careful embracing, within that mindset of preparation,  a doomsday.  As discussed in relation to the AT&T windowless concrete tower in New York City – created to withstand a nuclear attack, to which the so called everyday prepper in planning for tomorrows end may do so at their own mental peril, that such a significant global event may not transpire in their lifetime.  Despite the odds either way, the effort is an all consuming and psychologically vexing endeavor.  But, governments and their private beneficiaries in their moments of wisdom do have the resources, money and time to create doomsday structures in perpetration for that one in million chance of a natural cataclysmic event or as the Bulletin of Concerned Scientists Doomsday Clock has indicated, we are now stand at 2 minutes to midnight.  So, it maybe closer than not.  Thus a structure has been built that is not only underground, but also remote and disconnected from the turmoil of human conflicts that are occurring today.  

Deep within the Arctic circle temperatures can drop far below -50 degrees, where an archipelago of islands the Norwegians call Svalbard are situated, which sit between the two main territorial waters of the region; the Barents and Greenland seas and as we move further towards the North Pole lies the Arctic Ocean. The only island that is habitable connected to the Svalbard archipelago is called Spitsbergen and in this naturally rugged part of the world, with its persistent below freezing temperatures in Winter, houses a unique structure.  Known globally as the 'Doomsday' Seed Vault. 

In 2006 the Norwegian Government funded the construction of the officially titled Svalbard Global Seed Vault, by 2018 the project was completed within this desolate arctic windlessness, revealing an ominous and at the same time subtle man-made gesture against the natural elements.  Holding a striking perspective with its angled concrete doorway, set within this sparse and in what appears to be, particularly in the height of winter, lifeless area of the Spitsbergen.  Yet, it juts out like an artifact or relic of human ingenuity.  But behind this vault door, encased like a nuclear fall out shelter, buried deep 150 meters deep into a Sandstone mountain, in what may seem like a simple, yet perfect controlled environment. Utilizing the freezing temperatures and more importantly the dry atmosphere, is a preservation of 930,000 varieties of seeds, all capable of being used as sustainable food crops.  A historic snapshot of over 13,000 years of agricultural history - protected within this Doomsday bunker. 

This underground vault was not built for humans to inhabit, its narrow walkway encased by concrete and machinery, the persistent hum whilst regulating the dry and freezing temperatures, leads onto the three divided large main storage areas.  Checked regularly and updated with new seeds arriving from war zones and disaster areas throughout the world.  What is stored in this protected enclosure, may just be a seed, but, as the world reaches tipping points on not just environmental uncertainty and climate change, but also its inter-global conflicts fuled by the strategic control of recourses.  It maybe just the inflation and rising costs of living that will in turn effect the necessity of food which, at some-point, could manifest into global shortages effecting all countries in the world. 

What we do know, is agricultural plants and seeds can become extinct – and the food that it produces, to which, in our over expansion and demand, as population increases within all the cities that we reside in, is taken for granted.  And this why it represents in its functional design as a subterranean storage facility, located on this stark and inhospitable place, to be defined as the Doomsday Vault.  Because that is exactly what it is; to safeguard and sustain food for the human race.   

Its insure of contents is beyond monetary value.