situated within the alpine mountains of austria, in bad gastein, ‘snow guarantee’ is a seven meter tall, functioning, weather station, covered in 23-carat gold by artist and sculptor iwo borkowicz. the sculpture is an actual, working weather station covered in gold to highlight the importance of climate change and the crisis we are facing today.

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all images by iwo borkowicz

 

 

‘snow guarantee’ by iwo borkowicz is connected to a network of over 250 000 weather stations all around the globe. it supplies data to an open-source meteorological database, helping users and scientists understand the climate better. moreover, the sculpture streams the weather data live on the website www.snowguarantee.eu.

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the sculpture consists of meteorological sensors and symbolic elements. it is equipped with sensors that track wind speed and direction, UV radiation, LUX levels, temperature, rainfall, humidity, and air pressure. on its top sits a weather vane shaped like a dodo– a bird famously driven to extinction by humans. here replacing the more commonly used rooster, a species of bird most famously farmed and eaten by humans.

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wind rose is represented with letters extracted from logotypes of entities infamously ignorant about climate crisis. for instance, the ‘n’ is from nestle for north, ‘w’ from walmart for west, ‘e’ from exonmobile for east, and ‘s’ from pis (polish ruling political party) for south. however one may also find positive symbols, like a tribute to human motivation and resilience in addressing the climate crisis in the form of a 1:1 replica of a wind sensor installed by alpinists and scientists on mount everest in 2020.’snow guarantee’ was commissioned by and is a part of the comodo art collection.

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through a long history of human civilization, and to this day gold is synonymous with value. domes of temples, crowns, wedding jewelry, awards, and important statues are covered in gold in numerous cultures around the world. gold is associated with the wisdom of aging and fruition. the fiftieth wedding anniversary is golden. a person’s most valued or most successful years are considered ‘golden years’. the height of a civilization is referred to as a golden age. ‘only important things are golden. it’s for us to say what is important.’ says architect iwo borkowicz.

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for many decades now, across the alps meteorological stations have recorded a declining amount of snowy days. year by year alpine glaciers become less stable and simply melt. to combat this trend snow is being stored, produced, and cared for. glaciers are being wrapped in insulation blankets to slow down their demise. once all year round mölltaler glacier is closed for visits during summers since 2018 due to the rapid melting. private and public companies offer special services, so-called ‘snow guarantees’. bad gastein once again is running out of its core resource – snow, the new gold.

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project info:

 

name: ‘snow guarantee‘ – the golden weather station
designer: iwo borkowicz

location: bad gastein, austria

metalwork: ferwor

gilding consultants: krzysztof owsiany, jolanta wejnert

weather station sensor and data sharing consultants: patryk wejnert, rafał całka

production support: sonia borkowicz, pola machinska

 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: yasmina karam | designboom