The James B. Hunt Jr. Library at the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University is a very interesting structure. It accepts that the purpose of a library has changed, it has embraced the reality that the books are not the main reason to go to the university library. It employs a very interesting and efficient “bookbot” to sort and store all of the books that would be stored in stacks at any other university campus, and condenses it all into a large room with floor to ceiling bins and a robotic crane to recover the books. The library has a green roof and is heated partially with a system that circulates warm air that has been heated by the sun throughout the building. The building has a large maker space with 3d printers and other new technology’s. All in all, it is a beautiful building that does its part to preserve the environment.

“La Catedral de Sal” or the “Salt Cathedral” in English is a magnificent experience. It is carved into the hills in the outskirts of Bogota, Colombia. The hill has been mined for its naturally occurring solid salt for hundreds of years. In 1995 the Architect Luis Ángel Arango won a competition to design a Cathedral to be carved into an abandoned level of the salt mine. The results are spectacular. You enter through a nondescript tunnel lined with concrete strait into the hill. The tunnel begins to slope downwards and soon the concrete stops, revealing a long passageway carved into pure salt. As one descends the 180 meters underground to reach the actual cathedral you pass an interesting mix of displays and annexes off of the main tunnel. Some showcase the technology used to mine the salt, while others adhere to the religious nature of the building and tell the story of the Stations of the Cross. As the decent continues the tunnel gets smaller and rougher, before opening all of a sudden into the massive cavity that forms the basilica.  It is worth a visit if you are ever in or around Bogota.