the Dome is now enjoying a wonderful second life as a major venue on the Greenwich Peninsular, on the banks of the Thames, in London - it is now known as the O2
despite many frustrations working on the Millennim Dome project, its potential was pretty clear and after the millennium celebrations it was put up for sale - we tried to buy it, and indeed made the tope 5 bids, but when the winning bid dropped out, nobody came back to us to ask if we were still interested 9we would have been!).
Anyway, this was the letter we wrote expressing our initial interest - it is a nice indication of what might have been:
Millennium Dome Competition
English Partnerships
110 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9SBfrom: Prof Stephen Heppell
Date: 25/03/1999,
Subject Millennium Dome future use:DomeLab
I am pleased to be able to confirm our expression of interest in the Dome and associated land from Spring 2001.
Our idea is a simple, but we think fitting, use for a building that has already focussed the nation on innovation; put at it simplest, our intention would be to use the Dome to house a great laboratory of research, with constant public access to the work going on inside - a sort of British MIT, but better!
Why? Everywhere that technology impacts on our lives the pace of change is rapid. The question that vexed our parents, and their parents "what can I do?" has been largely replaced by the understanding that in fact almost anything is possible, The question for the next Millennium is "what should I do?". For example in agriculture "can I produce more food?" is replaced by "are these crops appropriate?", in architecture "how high can I build?" has been replaced by "what is appropriate to be built?", in medicine "who can I cure?" by "who should we cure?", "what do we mean by cure?", and so on.
The debate continues in broadcasting, mobility, sport, science, communications, politics... everywhere, including of course, in learning.
Our intention is to assemble a research community of the best teams, pushing forward at the cutting edge of what can be done, but crucially communicating their exploration in the most public of ways to help begin or inform a public debate. The juxaposition of daily public attendance with the best research community on the planet will be a unique and fittng use for a Dome that has already been a significant catalyst in public debate. The public would come to the Dome for the delight of the activities on offer, but would leave entranced by the debate that they had been drawn into, in animated discussion all the way home having both learned and contributed.
In addition we believe that the eclectic, polymathic even, community of researchers that would be housed in the Dome will offer a unique crticial mass and cross pollination between disciplines that will be of enormous value to the national effort. The sum of their research, hot-housed together, will we are quite certain, lead to real gains: unexpected knowledge and rapid progress. Great research alongside healthy debate exemplifies the European tradition of learning and our project would be founded on Learning in its broadest and most seductive sense. We would expect that as a showcase for techlogical developments across all areas of our social and working lives that a further gain would be the impact on children's aspirations.The DomeLab will be a very aspirational, very cool place indeed with a genuinely valued role for everyone in the UK.
The team assembling this bid, largely from Ultalab, has a strong international reputation for innovation in learning, technology and research. A long and unequalled track record of innovation encompasses Europe's longest running Internet Learning Project (our Nortel sponsored Learning in the New Millennium project), the innovative Schools OnLine project with the DTI and a host of commercial sponsors, (described by the TES as the UK's bravest and best internet learning project), the uniquely successful Tesco SchoolNet 2000 project curently engaging students in half the UK's schools and showcasing in the Dome currently, the millennium mail project with Oracle which will be giving both an email address and the tools to build and sustain learning communities to every child, teacher and parent in the UK, and a mass of other projects that demonstrate our technological capability, our commitment to projects that engage and entrance the nation, a clear vision of learning and a philosophy of public service that attracts sponsors and participants alike.
We know that we are held in sufficient esteem to attract the best teams, to carry the support of ministers, and to build a viable model of funding and partnership - already on offer to us.
You will undoutedly have many suggestions for the Dome's future use by others; our suggestion both matches the needs of our nation and offers a congruency with public engagement and desire.
Discourse and a forward focus is literally what the Dome was built for; we have the support, and we can't wait to get started.
yours,
Professor Stephen Heppell
the page created in 2005 and last updated on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 11:24 AM by prof stephen heppell ©