Globus Cassus
art project and book by Christian Waldvogel
Globus Cassus is an art project and book by Swiss architect and artist Christian Waldvogel presenting a conceptual transformation of Earth into a much bigger, hollow, artificial world with an ecosphere on its inner surface. It was the Swiss contribution to the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale, and the book was awarded the gold medal in the category "Most beautiful books of the World" at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2005. It consists of a meticulous description of the transformation process, a narrative of its construction, and suggestions on the organizational workings on Globus Cassus.
Waldvogel described it as an "open source" art project and stated that anyone could contribute designs and narratives to it on the project wiki. As of August 2012, the Globus Cassus wiki is no longer operational.
Properties
The proposed megastructure would incorporate all of Earth's matter. Sunlight would enter through two large windows, and gravity would be simulated by the centrifugal effect. Humans would live on two vast regions that face each other and that are connected through the empty center. The hydrosphere and atmosphere would be retained on its inside. The ecosphere would be restricted to the equatorial zones, while at the low-gravity tropic zones a thin atmosphere would allow only for plantations.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Globus Cassus” is art project and book by Christian Waldvogel. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Globus, Cassus and project, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1502355. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2004, 2005 and 2012.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Globus Cassus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.