Yulia Hanansen Mosaic Sphere Studio: mosaics in Ann Arbor, MI

Project Proposals : Yucca Mountain Universal Warning Sign Design

*This design won an Honorable Mention at the Universal Warning Sign design competition.

Please, see Yuccan Mountain Sign Design link to view project in full.

Competition Challenge:
To create a universal warning sign/permanent marker for the high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV. The purpose of the warning sign is "to deter intentional or inadvertent human intrusion or interference at the site and to effectively communicate over the course of the next 10,000 years that the integrity of the site must not be compromised in any way in order to prevent the release of the radiation contained within."

Concept:
The "Radioactive Danger" sign as we know it today may not be known as such in thousands of years to come. However, it should be known as a sign used in the 20th-21st centuries to communicate the message of radioactive danger. Therefore, we incorporated into our design elements that bear some of the features of conventional 2D "Radioactive Danger" sign, so that the future archaeologists could identify it as a warning dated back to 2000A.D.

We stylized the conventional sign, arriving at the conjoined triangle design. The sign has sharp edges, representing an acuteness and seriousness appropriate for the warning it must convey. It is a pyramidal structure which can be perceived as a message containing another message. The monument itself becomes a symbolic mountain where one will be able to enter it and learn about what lies within.

Since there are 6 known entrances into the mountain, there will be one sign placed by each entrance blocking further passage into the mountain. The size of each sign, 37 feet in diameter and 12 feet tall at the peak, allows them to be easily observed from the air.