deputydog | 2008 February

how to disguise a water tower and confuse the public

By deputydog ⋅ 28 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ 26 comments

walking towards the ‘house in the clouds’ in suffolk for the first time can be a confusing experience if you approach from the right angle as the otherwise normal-looking home appears to either float above the trees or perch on a non-existent hill behind the surrounding greenery…

the frightening grid of nezahualcoyotl

By deputydog ⋅ 19 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ 47 comments

while we’re on the subject of aerial geometry, check out the insane aerial views of nezahualcoyotl, mexico state’s 2nd most populous municipality. this particular area consists of hundreds and hundreds of rows of densely packed housing occasionally sliced by a main road. just looking at these photos makes me claustrophobic but i can’t help admiring the patterns created by the hardcore “pack ‘em in tightly” urban planning.

aerial geometry: 5 circular communities from the sky

By deputydog ⋅ 17 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ 51 comments

following the star forts post a couple of weeks ago i became immersed in a world of aerial geometry due to the fact that i find it hard to research a topic for this site and not explore everything related to it. to be honest, star forts are pretty impossible to beat for impressiveness but the circular communities below are still quite stunning. as always, leave any other examples of similar communities in the comments.

hands down, the coolest skyscraper ever made

By deputydog ⋅ 16 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ 26 comments

there are so many reasons to love this beauty that it’s hard to know where to start. it’s got 13 floors which, to me at least, makes it a skyscraper. it’s entirely made of wood, thus making it a wooden skyscraper. it was made by the fair hands of a single crazy russian man, thus making it a homemade wooden skyscraper. brilliant.

standing in the leg of a giant

By deputydog ⋅ 11 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ 28 comments

with a total weight of 1.2million tonnes, the troll offshore gas platform was built using 245,000m3 of concrete and 100′000 tonnes of steel (apparently the equivalent of 15 eiffel towers), the walls of its legs measuring over a metre thick. following construction, over a period of 7 days, ‘troll a’ was towed from rogaland in norway to the troll gas field in the north sea - a total of more than 200km.

the most organised shanty town on earth

By deputydog ⋅ 08 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ 37 comments

pre-2001, the residents of dignity village in portland, oregon, were part of a mobile ‘tent city’ founded by 8 local homeless people desperate to find some kind of semi-permanent shelter. in 2001, following much campaigning and media support, portland city council agreed to allow the camp legal campground status on the basis that they move to an area called sunderland yard, thus securing dignity village’s short-term future.

the grand shaft - amazing military engineering

By deputydog ⋅ 04 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ 24 comments

here’s an incredible piece of wartime engineering - the grand shaft in dover. built between 1806 and 1809 during the napoleonic wars, this triple spiral staircase was used as a rapid route for soldiers making their way from the clifftop barracks to the town of dover and it’s harbour below. without it the troops had to navigate badly maintained winding roads from top to bottom.

hamburg’s unique elevator tunnel

By deputydog ⋅ 03 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ 32 comments

running under the river elbe in hamburg is a beautiful tunnel like no other. this 1/2 kilometre ‘technical marvel’, known as the ‘old river elbe tunnel’, was built in 1911, sits 24 metres below the river and connects central hamburg with the shipyard island of steinwerder. what makes the tunnel unique are the entry points on each side of the river: rather than just driving straight into the tunnel, vehicles enter a freight elevator which slowly descends to the tunnel below, the tunnel then taking traffic to a similar elevator on the opposite side which lifts them back to ground level.

6 incredible star forts

By deputydog ⋅ 02 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ 84 comments

star forts are incredible, relatively unappreciated structures that have recently become a fascination of mine - humungous constructions that only really become visually stunning when you look down on them from above. this type of fortification design was adopted in the early 16th century as people realised that simpler, often circular forts were pretty crap when it came to the job in hand: defense. many of them still stand today in varying sizes. some are empty, some contain ruins. some, as you’ll see below, contain entire villages.

archive for February, 2008