Is This the Most Surreal Observation Deck Ever Imagined?

Billie Cohen
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German design firm Fly Architecture found inspiration in Salvador Dali’s melting objects. (Image: Fly Architecture)

Some pretty creative designers have proposed to build an observation deck based on Salvador Dali’s famous painting of melting clocks, The Persistence of Memory.

Imagined by German firm Fly Architecture, the lookout point, called Eye of Rock, would be like a giant, melting eye notched into Norway’s Pulpit Rock, a stunning natural tourist attraction that stands 1,980 feet above sea level. The cliff face provides beautiful views and inspires countless selfies. Perhaps the most photographed part of Pulpit Rock is the Kjeragbolten boulder, a relatively small rock squeezed between two cliffs, famous for coaxing brave/reckless visitors to crawl out onto it for the sake of social media.

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Pulpit Rock draws more than 200,000 visitors each year — and there’s no guard rail. (Photo: iStock/no_limit_pictures)

The Daily Mail notes that 200,000 travelers visit Pulpit Rock each year, and the number is growing despite the lack of easy access — you have to hike 2.4 miles to get there, which takes about two hours each way — and the lack of safety rails. Several tourists have jumped or fallen off the cliff in recent years.

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A project to improve the path has been underway, and over the past few months, Rethinking Architecture held a design competition to collect ideas for an observation deck.

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The dome would double as a screen showing regional information or even relevant movies. (Image: Fly Architecture)

The design by Fly Architecture proposes a giant glass dome with a stadium-like bleacher setup inside. The glass bubble enclosing it would be outfitted with augmented-reality technology so visitors could see information about the view projected onto the dome.

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In notebook sketches posted on Fly Architecture’s site, you can see how Dali’s paintings influenced the dripping shape of the Eye of Rock. (Image: Fly Architecture)

It sounds cool, but the idea turned out to be a bit too surreal for the judges. First prize went to Australian Rick Chen, whose “Fragile” plan focuses on enabling visitors to interact more intimately with nature than with technology.

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