Svalbard Norway
A concrete building rises from the mountain side like a functionalist sarcophagus with the soft glow of its upper facade reflecting polar light into the long winters.
In a kind of Noah’s Ark for Earth’s vegetation, the barren, frozen island of Svalbard in the wilds of Norway shelters the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a vast three-chambered vault carved into the permafrost mountainside. Accounting for all known possible environmental changes the “doomsday” structure is capable of protecting 4.5 million seeds with a constant -18 celsius temperature – a comprehensive catalogue preserving and version tracking our plant life as well as the go-to (and only) source should we need to replant after a cataclysmic event.
It was also a pleasure to discover the beautiful photographs of Greg White who spent some time documenting this wild, yet also human, place.
View a PDF of the technical history and details from the Norwegian Public Construction directorate.
photo credit: Mari Tefre / Global Crop Diversity Trust and Greg White
About the Author
Vagabondish editor, Mike Richard, lives in Rhode Island - a spit of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats, small, declarative sentences and speaking in the third person.
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