For almost 100 years oil shale was mined in the Messel Pit near
Darmstadt in central Germany. Here very well preserved fossils
were found again and again in the course of mining operations.
After the mine was closed in 1971 it turned – due to the great
number of fossils that it contains – into an archaeological
excavation and was placed under UNESCO protection as a World
Heritage Site. The Zurich based practice Holzer Kobler
Architekturen recently completed the scenography and interior
design for the Visitors Center of the exhibition. Here is what
the architects explain: “The layers of oil shale serve as the
motif upon which the entire building design is based. The floor
plan looks like a view of a cross-section of the rock, with
long, parallel concrete walls representing the different layers.
We’ve extended this spatial concept to the interior design, so
that in walking through the exhibition visitors symbolically
penetrate through four layers of rock. Every room layer is
subdivided by transverse glass walls