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An Egg of Thought, of course, can't you read? ;-)
Okay, it really is only an egg-shaped composite made out of panoramas taken inside and outside the Academy of Mont Cenis in Herne, Germany. This academy for vocational education is a magnificent building with a quite extraordinary architecture. Basically it has two long wings: The first contains hotel rooms for the people attending courses for more than one day. The second offers large and small rooms for lectures, workshops, seminars, and in addition to that a reception, a canteen and - for the evenings - a bar.
These two wings are covered by a large "glass box" with a clever computerized air flow system that allows for a "Mediterranean" climate inside the box (the architects claim that the climate of Nice is replicated here) - with only a low amount of energy used. In addition to that the large roof is furnished with a very large number of solar collectors covering 10.000 square meters, reducing the energy intake of the building even further.
Another thing to know is that this academy was built on the location of an old coal mine also called "Mont Cenis". Since we're in the heart of the Ruhr Area this modern academy at the same spot as the old mine sort of symbolizes the economic change this huge area has made - from the coal and steel center of Europe to a center of the modern service society. At least this is what the politicians like to tell ...
Enough words - now for some pictures; among them some of the panoramic pictures used for the "Egg" you've seen above. This is what the building's glass box looks from its rear end, near some remains of old mine buildings:
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And this is the first panoramic glimpse of the glass box, taken from the side, showing the building and its side entrance:
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And here we go with the first view of the interior of the building, taken from a balcony at the middle of the "office wing", looking towards the "hotel wing" - you can see part of the canteen on the left side:
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This second interior shot is an 360 degree panorama, taken near the main entrance of the building:
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For a change here a another 360 degree view, but now circling from the bottom to the top of the building and back again - taken from another point of view in the rear part of the glass box:
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Well, I admit that this is not really 360 degrees; the picture is cropped at the left and right sides, because those consisted mainly of grey gravel, adding nothing much to the composition. So we've a field of view of around 270-300 degrees only.
Finally a view somewhat similar to the first interior panorama posted above - of the academy's interior at night:
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And that's it! Hope you enjoyed this tour of the academy - a true "Egg of Thought"! :-)
