On holidays Cave --- Kents Cavern

Cave is one of the earliest architecture in the history of human civilization. Lots of cave painting and artifacts proved that cave was inhabited by prehistoric human. Even nowadays, cave also can be used as architecture, like cave-dwelling in China, Shannxi and Shanxi Province. This kind of architecture has been used in people's daily life for centuries.

There are countless caves in the world; some of them have been explored by speleologists, while others have not been found. If we consider the cave as a kind of architecture, it has some advantages. Usually, cave keeps unexpected natural shape and space in its amazing interior. The whole cave space has been separated into different spaces by the growth of limestone. It is a shelter designed by nature. On the other hand, it also has disadvantages such as lack of light, have poor ventilation and high humidity level. These weak points may be harmful to human beings, but can be improved by modern technology.

Kents Cavern

1. Archaeological Significance
Kents Cavern is a prehistoric natural cave system in Torquay, Devon, southwest of England. The caverns and passages at the site were created around 2 million years ago by water action. It was the oldest recognizable human dwelling in Britain and has some of the oldest evidence of man's occupation of Britain. Over 80,000 artifacts were excavated from the cave between 1865 and 1880. Also, it has been proved that some ancient animals lived in this cave because lots of fossils have been found.

2. Geology of Kents Cavern
The rock surrounding Kents Cavern is Devonian limestone, a sedimentary rock composed principally of Calcium Carbonate. In Kents Cavern the limestone is primarily white but colored by the minerals in the rock above. Limestone in Kents Cavern is mainly formed by direct crystallization of water. If water containing Calcium Carbonate is evaporated, the Calcium Carbonate is left as crystals. Stalagmite and stalactites are formed by these crystals. Today this process is still active in Kents Cavern. The humidity and temperature of the cave environment and the rate of in-flow and the chemical content of the water are the main factors controlling the rate of Calcium deposition.

3. Kents Cavern at present
The Kents Cavern has been discovered by William Pengelly in 1865, and since 20th century, it was used as a visitor attraction and opened to the public. Meanwhile, it also attracts the archaeologists and geologists to do some researches in this cave.

The purpose of this project
On this vacation, I have visit this cave. I think people visit Kents Cavern not only because this prehistoric cave has a large amount of wonderful limestone, but also it has recorded the prehistoric human's daily activities. To help the cave show itself to the public more effectively, I want to design an exhibition space in the cave. However, it is not like traditional architecture. The underground exhibition place is designed by the main principle of growing architecture. Using modern technology to control the growth of stalactite and form the architecture space, also improve the environment factors in the cave. As a result, the new architecture and the cave blend into one harmonious whole.