Which town?

forming a square on which would come to rest the globe of glass crystal moulded, cast and polished in Germany; the installation of the heliostat on the roof and the eggshell white coating of the twelve inclined segments of the ceiling; the fitting of the four heavy pivoting massive marble panels of the two double doors on the East and West; the laying of the twelve pieces of the white wool carpet woven on specially built frames = several years of meticulous labor went by.

*

For the external works – the covering of the sphere with its prefabricated triangular panels each pierced to be set with a glass porthole; the waterproofing of the entire outer surface and the manufacture of the gilded discs; the finishing of the interior levels of the lower hemisphere with their two spiral ramps, their two helical stairs and the inside covering of the shell with a translucent membrane; the curved extensions of the four double pillars; the construction of the twelve structural petals, each containing in its hollow volume the independent structure of its own inner room; the four main access ramps leading to the four entrances of the sphere and the eight secondary ramps leading down to a pond underneath it; the twelve earth movements linking the petals to the twelve inner gardens – more time indeed would be needed for each element and each stage as materials and methods would be studied, discovered, elaborated and even sometimes invented and developed on site. R. had not received a training as an engineer as PC. had and his proposals often proved impractical; repeated attempts on the part of the team responsible for the works to bring them to work together only led to one or the other’s retreat or withdrawal; it was therefore indispensable to assist R. in simplifying his concepts so they could be translated into execution plans.

253