And the shortlisted projects for 'Best Wider World Tourism Project' are...
Just outside Hiroshima, on the shores of the Seto Inland Sea, is the new Simose Art Museum. The striking design by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban is inspired by the landscape of the Setouchi islands directly in front of the site. The collection ranges from Japanese crafts to masterpieces by Matisse and Chagall.
Eight different coloured glass boxes, floating on a lake, make up the majority of the gallery space. They’re anchored to the bottom but are designed to be unmoored and repositioned, enabling not only the rearrangement of the exhibits but also the building itself. This is the world’s first moveable art museum
Though each floating structure weighs 42.5 tonnes, they can be moved by two people. Foot bridges connect each gallery and at night they light up to glow like gigantic lanterns, standing as beacons on the seashore.
There’s more art outside - the garden features flowers and plants used as motifs by the French artist and designer Emile Gallé. You can also spend the night here in one of ten luxury villas, versions of Shigeru Ban’s residential works. Add a gourmet French restaurant and you have the unique experience of "looking at art amid art."
The High Atlas Foundation have been present in Morocco since 2000. However, following the earthquake in September 2023, their profile and number of projects have substantial increased. In 2016 in Akrich (30-minutes from Morocco, Marrakech), an interfaith tree planting project was established on the grounds of a 700-year-old Jewish cemetery.
Following the earthquake and a loss of Jewish tourism in 2023, new community projects and visiting groups were established to provide additional income and support to the community, especially around the Women's Carpet-Making Cooperative whose main place of work was left unsafe, an open-air sort of home-style restaurant and tea house established alongside the fairly, community-made carpet store.
Currently, visits are only possible for groups, not individuals; HAF have an ongoing partnership with the Intrepid Travel Foundation.
Forget that image of grimy old industrial Pittsburgh, it’s now reaching for the stars and making machines to explore the moon and beyond. Watch them being built at the Moonshot Museum - Pennsylvania's only space museum and the world’s first to focus on career and community opportunities in the space industry.
Visits start with an eight-minute film detailing the current state of space exploration, the incredible opportunities space offers humanity, and how it could help solve Earth’s biggest problems.
The lights come up and reveal, behind a floor to ceiling glass wall, the Clean Room Lab. Watch scientists from Astrobotic Technology assemble lunar landers and rovers before their journey to the moon.
Kids love the interactive exhibits – design and build payloads for lunar rovers then explore the moon’s surface, identifying sites for future human habitation, and complete a scavenger hunt for essential items for a manned mission.
Dreamers can leave a message or picture, and they’ll send it onwards to the Moon’s surface on the next mission.
For the budding space cadet, check out the wide variety of space careers now available in Pittsburgh and beyond. You could be making that giant leap for mankind sooner than you think.
