The Friesenhahn cave site was last occupied 15,000 years ago. The cave and site itself provide a unique demonstration of time. Refracted Time gives prominence to this concept. The structure is located along the boundary of the Subterranean Preservation Zone. A smooth and polished structure is suspended by rough rocks beneath it. These rocks blur the boundary between the building and the landscape. The contrast between rough and smooth produces an ambiguity about which parts of Refracted Time are inhabitable.
Its program contains a lab to study material collected from the cave, and an archive to hold the material. It also contains a library to store information about the cave, a field house for visiting researchers, and a classroom, which is part of a unique experience created for visitors. A large gantry robot mounted below the smooth structure sorts material sequentially, bringing it to the lab for study, and subsequently the archive for storage.
A researcher or visitor will approach the site from present-day suburbia, and will enter into a series of thresholds that allow inhabitants to actually feel time, and travel 15,000 years into the past. The rocks, which are visible at almost every point on the site, convey further the idea of geological time. The first threshold is that of the courtyard. From the street and from the parking lot, the inside of the courtyard is not visible. It is only when visitors begin to approach the entrance that they catch a glimpse of the courtyard. The courtyard provides a feeling of protection and order as it is enclosed on all four sides, and neat gravel terraces lay atop the sloped hill. There are vast woods containing relics from over 15,000 years ago just ahead, but a suspended long polished structure obstructs the view. The structure contains a wall of reflective windows, so all that is visible is what is behind you, the present. Visitors will travel down the sloped courtyard toward a classroom, located below this structure. This is the first time the visitors will catch a glimpse of the dense woods concealing the cave. Continuing under the structure, visitors will enter another threshold. An underground path curves along the edge of the SPZ in order to conceptually mark the boundary of this special place. This path brings visitors from the present into a different realm of the ancient past. Here, the vast woods are visible, and it is unclear where the familiar courtyard is. This
overwhelming feeling of vastness and disorientation represents deep time and the incomprehensible scale of geological events. As the visitor turns around to see the structure where one came from, the polished form and reflective windows show only the endless woods behind them, the past.
overwhelming feeling of vastness and disorientation represents deep time and the incomprehensible scale of geological events. As the visitor turns around to see the structure where one came from, the polished form and reflective windows show only the endless woods behind them, the past.
