GLOBAL NEWS
UK design firm Snug Architects
has won a competition to design
a Christian monument in the
form of a giant mobius strip
that can tell visitors a million
stories of answered prayers. Run
by the Royal Institute of British
Architects, the competition
attracted entries from more
than 130 architecture practices
in 28 countries.
Snug’s winning design, to be
called the ‘Wall of Answered
Prayer’, will use a million bricks,
each telling a story about an
answered prayer drawn from
contemporary testimonials and
centuries of Christian writings.
Visitors will be able to point
their smartphones at a brick to
be told the story relating to it,
according to the organisation
developing the project, which
points out that sometimes the
answer to a prayer is ‘no’, or
‘not yet’.
The strip will be 50m high
and will occupy a site donated
by a family at Coleshill Manor
on the edge of Birmingham.
Richard Gamble, chief
executive of The Wall of
Answered Prayer, says: “This
15-year-old vision is now
becoming reality. I’m chuffed
to bits with the design, which
handled perfectly the challenge
of creating intrigue when being
seen from afar, yet providing
a truly interactive journey for
those who visit. We want to
create an iconic structure the
nation will not only be proud
of, but find inspirational – it
will be a landmark of hope.”
The Wall of Answered Prayer
website says that 500 000
journeys will travel past the
monument every week, and up
to 200 000 people will visit the
site annually. “We hope that as
people interrogate the answered
prayers and comprehend the
colossal nature of what they are
witnessing, they will personally
encounter the God who
answers.”
Monument with a million ‘talking’ bricks planned
The Western (Wailing) Wall in
Jerusalem.
The organisation hopes to have
the wall built before the 2022
Birmingham Commonwealth
Games.
Canada is giving the country’s
mining association more
than USD240 000 to develop
a programme that would
give miners the tools and
knowledge needed to better
plan for climate change in
decision-making at all stages
of an operation’s life. The
project – Climate Change Risk
and Adaptation Best Practices
for the Mining Sector – was
announced in May by Paul
Lefebvre, Parliamentary
Secretary to the Minister of
Natural Resources.
The new programme will
enable the Mining Association
of Canada (MAC) to work
with industry and other
experts in developing best
practices and guidance for
the mining sector on climate
change risks and adaptation
measures, Lefebvre says.
MAC, Golder Associates and
Lorax Environmental Services
are financially contributing
to the project, which has a
total value of USD500 000.
The investment builds on
other Government of Canada
initiatives (or Canadian
Minerals and Metals Plan),
developed in conjunction
with provincial and territorial
8_QUARRY SA| JULY/AUGUST 2019
Canada funds mining ‘climate change adaptation’
Glendyne Quarry in Canada.
governments, indigenous
peoples, industry and civil
society.
“By investing in sustainable
mining projects like this one by
the MAC, our government is
helping ensure that our natural
resources, including minerals
and metals, play an important
role in supplying the building
blocks for clean technologies
across the world,” Lefebvre
says. “By helping our mining
sector to adapt to a changing
climate, we are proving once
more that the environment
and the economy go hand in
hand.”
www.quarryonline.co.za