below is the recently (2003) extended runway at funchal airport in portugal madeira. the original 1400m runway was notoriously short and, as a result, sometimes dangerous for landing planes (see here). the runway extension won the iabse’s ‘outstanding structures award’ and rightly so: due to an obvious lack of land, engineers have supported the extension on 180 pillars, each 70m high. on the last photo you can see what seems to be a car park that now lives under the end of the runway.

(thanks to adam for the info & pics)

[edit: it seems these photos are from airliners.net. click on the pics to go to the relevant source]

welcome to irisan, a barangay (village) in baguio city, the philippines’ ’summer city’. there are around 125 barangays in bagiuo city and the majority of the the rubbish/waste they all produce lands at this landfill site which has developed into an enormous, presumably horrific smelling mountain, nestled amongst the housing you see above. if you look closely you can see some locals milling around at the top, most probably earning their living from the surroundings.

below is the area on google maps. the direct link is here. 



seeing this reminded me of hiriya in israel….



photo: meron c

the photo above isn’t of a beautiful natural land formation, it’s the hiriya waste dump from a distance: a landfill so large that planes approaching nearby ben gurion airport were, until the site was closed a decade ago, known to run into trouble due to the high concentration of swarming birds attracted to the smell.



sources: 1, 2

as time goes by there seems to be a growing trend amongst those people lucky enough to afford it / mental enough to spend all available cash on it: home cinemas. huge screens, incredible sound systems and luxurious seats are popping up in seemingly spare rooms and basements larger than my entire flat.

however this is also giving a few movie geeks a real chance to shine and it seems they’re not content with a simple in-home movie theatre decent enough to hold a premiere in - they clearly want to be fully immersed in the worlds created by their favourite films.

so, in no particular order, here are 10 of the best themed home cinemas on earth…

1. indiana jones cinema



this amazing indy-themed room was designed by home theatre expert doug charrois for larry and colleen halliday in canada. the room even features ‘replicas of the holy grail, a jacket, hat, whips, torches and more—including the idol from the opening of the original movie’.
more info here.

2. the batcave 



above is possibly the sleekest home theatre i’ve ever seen. it was created by canadian-based experts ‘elite home theater seating’, who, as the name suggests, specialize in hand-made, custom home theater furniture for ‘high-end’ clientele. and bruce wayne.

more info here.

3. the enterprise ncc-1701d cinema



based on starship enterprise ncc-1701d, this stunner consists of a cinema, bar area and apparently ‘one of the largest kaleidoscope hard-drive based storage systems (..) in a residential installation. at last count, there were eight servers with 3,816 dvds’. there’s even a red alert button which brings on red flashing lights and appropriately tense music.

more info here.

4. the bridge



trekkie gary reighn decided to cut out the middle man and design & build his home cinema himself on a relatively small budget of $15′000. his basement was cleared to make way for the creation and from start to finish took 2 years.

more info here.

5. evergreen ultimate theater



apparently ‘one of the most technically and structurally advanced private theaters in the united states’, this phenomenal star trek home cinema even contains motorised sliding doors, as requested by the unbelievably rich client who paid around $3′000′000 in total for the transformation.
more info here.

6. titanic



the ceiling dome in this titanic themed set-up contains 1′230 fiber optic light strands in order to provide the artificial night sky and entry to the luxurious bar next door can be found behind a motorised bookcase. the whole project was designed by donny hackett of ‘casa cinema design’.

more info here.

7. the death star



it doesn’t get much cooler than this. the 10-seat death star home cinema was designed for vic wertz and lisa stevens and includes, amongst other things: automatic doors, a twinkling fiber optic star field and a thx sound system. the best fact? the room was designed by doug chiang, lead designer on episodes I & II.

more info here and here:

8. the nautilus



this beauty was built as a result of film geek randy moran’s love of the nautilus submarine from the film 20′000 leagues under the sea. he hired ‘dillon works inc’ to build and fabricate all the trusses, wall panels, screen frames, and portholes and ‘acoustic innovations’ to supply the plush red seating.

more info here.

9. the pirate cove




the pirate cove was created as a result of avs forum user pkonold’s love of the pirates of the carribean disney ride and movies. to make the atmosphere as authentic as possible he and his wife ensured that when seated ‘you feel like you are floating down “the bayou” at night. to accomplish this we have built a star field in the ceiling, complete with real constellations and shooting stars!’.
more info here.

10. the sci-fi cinema




ok, so the screen isn’t the biggest and the seats are slightly lacking but inside dr. david winn’s home cinema can be found: a hydraulic alien bursting through the wall, a talking robbie the robot and both the predator and the creature from the black lagoon behind bars. the cinema, including all collectibles, cost approximately $100′000.

more info here.

otherwordly structures, massive machines, surreal technology….

some incredible beasts have been constructed in the name of research and below are 14 of the most immediately intriguing.

on to the brilliance…

1. super kamiokande detector, kamioka observatory, japan




an old favourite on the intertubes, this 50′000 ton cylindrical ‘ring-imaging water cerenkov detector’ can be found at the kamioka mozumi mine in japan - 1′000m underground. clever people built the machine to detect neutrinos, proton decay and cosmic rays: this is done using the 12′000-ish photomultiplier tubes (extremely sensitive light detectors) visible on all walls of the ‘ultra-purified water-filled’ tank. to offer further explanation would reveal my scientific ineptitude. instead, go here for a nicely simplified explanation and here for some incredible hi-res photos large enough to incapacitate the average pc.

2. benefield anechoic facility, california, usa



first of all (in case you don’t know) an anechoic chamber is a room which has been filled with sound absorbing materials in order to minimise all reflections from internal surfaces, thus making the space echo-less. more commonly these rooms are used to test and research sound equipment due to the lack of any such interference affecting the equipment’s output. the benefield anechoic facility you see above is the largest anechoic chamber on earth and, rather than using acoustically absorbent materials, is filled with radiation absorbent materials in the form of 816′000 foam cones designed to minimise the reflection of radio frequency signals. to read more, look here.

3. the z machine, sandia national laboratory, new mexico, usa




the z machine is the largest x-ray generator on earth and is believed by many as the key to understanding controlled fusion.
‘the z machine uses a short burst of intense electricity - only a few 10 billionths of a second long - that forces an ionized gas to implode. the process is called a z-pinch because the pulse creates a magnetic field that squeezes particles in the vertical direction, which math books usually label as the “z-axis.” at the center of the z-pinch, in the space of a small soup can, gas particles race at each other at a million miles an hour. the collisions result in X-rays and extremely high temperatures.’
in 2006 the machine unexpectedly produced plasmas with temperatures in excess of 3.6 billion °f. that’s hotter than the core of our sun.

4. very large array, new mexico, usa



arranged on an enormous y-shaped set of tracks on the plains of san augustin is the ‘very large array’, a collection of 27 radio antennas used primarily by astronomers around the world. each antenna weighs 230 tons and can be moved by way of the 3 13 mile long tracks, giving a total of 4 different configurations, the data from all 27 antenna can then be combined to give the resolution of an antenna whopping 22 miles across. the 2nd picture, from google maps, gives you some idea of the scale of the observatory.
the direct link to the vla on google maps is here. the vla website is here.


5. large hadron collider, cern, switzerland/france




the large hadron collider, when completed very soon, will be the largest particle collider on earth, one of the intentions being to recreate the slightly hot conditions that occured immediately after the big bang, in turn resulting in the observation of the ‘god particle‘. the huge circle in the 1st photo is the location of the lhc tunnel, located approximately 100m below ground and measuring 27km in circumference. in the tunnel are 2 parallel tubes, each carrying protons in opposite directions at near the speed of light using the surrounding superconducting magnets. to carry on with this explanation could take days and a lot of mistakes so you should continue reading about this mammoth machine here.

6. large helical device, gifu, japan



the phenomenal photo above shows superconducting coils within the large helical device in japan, a machine which holds the title of ‘largest superconducting stellarator in the world’. these huge winding coils are used to generate magnetic fields strong enough to confine a plasma in the centre which needs to be heated to the point where a controlled nuclear fusion reaction will occur - 100 million degrees.
you can read more about the device here. a mammoth version of the photo is here.

7. odeillo solar furnace, odeillo, france




built in 1969, this brilliantly shiny oddity is the 8-storey high odeillo solar furnace in france: at present the largest on the planet. the 63 smaller mirrors on the hillside reflect the sun onto the huge parabolic reflector you see in the photos, this in turn reflecting the solar radiation very precisely onto a point just 18 metres in front of the parabola. using this method, temperatures can reach an unbelievably hot 3400°C. the incredible amount of heat generated by the furnace is used for research in many areas including high temperature solar engineering (advanced solar power systems, solar chemistry, etc.), photo-physics and chemistry applied physics. the official site is here.

8. atf fire research laboratory, maryland, usa



measuring a whopping 60ft x 60ft, this is the largest calorimetry hood on earth and is an essential part of the atf fire research laboratory. the hood needs to be this large in order to monitor and measure the heat output created by burning buildings underneath it. full scale houses have been specifically built, placed under the hood and destroyed in the name of research on a regular basis since the state-of-the-art facility was opened in 2003, and that’s just one of the 3 hoods in a lab which is so impressive that it’s visited by experts the world over.
official site is here.

9. ligo observatories, louisiana & washington, usa



the photo above shows ligo’s hanford observatory, one of 2 main facilities used by ligo to detect ‘ripples’ or gravitational waves in space-time. both of the observatories have an enormous l-shaped interferometer, each arm measuring 4km in length, with a mirror at each end. laser light enters the ‘arms’ from the corner of the l-shape and then bounces back and forth between each mirror a set number of times. the reason for this is better explained in the clip below. for a simple explanation about both gravitational waves and ligo itself, watch the clip. to see the hanford observatory on google maps, click here. the ligo website is here.

10. arecibo observatory, arecibo, puerto rico





the arecibo observatory in puerto rico contains the largest curved focusing dish on earth and is used for 3 main research purposes: radio astronomy, aeronomy and radar astronomy observations of solar system objects. the dish has been set in a depression between some hills and, to compensate for its fixed position, the receiver can be repositioned as it sits 450ft above ground. the observatory’s incredible appearance resulted in a cameo in goldeneye’s final scene.
the official arecibo site can be found here. also, the gigantic structure can be seen clearly on google maps here.

11. joint european torus, oxfordshire, uk

(above) ’split image showing interior view of the jet vacuum vessel with a superimposed image of an actual jet plasma, taken with a simple industrial tv camera in the visible spectrum’.

the joint european torus (jet) is the largest nuclear fusion experimental reactor on earth and is also a unique facility for researching fusion technology. jet is an example of a ‘tokamak’, a machine which produces an extremely strong, doughnut shaped magnetic field in order to confine a plasma. in jet’s case these plasmas can reach temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees centigrade. for more photos go here.

12. windshear rolling road wind tunnel, north carolina, usa




who knew aerodynamics research could look so cool? the windshear rolling road wind tunnel is the first of its kind in america and its 1mm thick steel belt can accelerate from 0-180mph in under a minute. unlike current wind tunnels, a machine like this allows engineers to study airflow to a greater degree due to the vehicle’s spinning wheels and resultant drag. some more facts…

- the air in this wind tunnel design flows from the fan to the vehicle, then is collected and returned to the fan in a closed circuit
- the main fan has a diameter of 22 feet, and is rated at 5,100 hp
- at maximum air speed, the fan produces an air flow volume of 2.85 million cubic feet per minute, and its total power consumption is 7 megawatts (one megawatt is equal to one million [106] watts)
- the belt will last up to 5,000 operational hours
- if a vehicle remained on the belt the entire time, it would “travel” approximately 300,000 to 400,000 kilometers
- the “thru-the-belt” measurement system measures the aerodynamic down force under each tire through the belt

13. solae, inazawa city, japan



this incredible looking building, built by the mitsubishi electric corporation, is the world’s tallest elevator shaft and was constructed specifically to enable engineers to research the next generation of high-speed elevators. solae is 173 metres tall and cost $45 million (usd) to complete but is an essential piece of kit when you consider the ever-increasing speeds and heights of elevator shafts: the world’s fastest elevator is currently at taipei 101 and travels at 37.66mph but this will soon be beaten by the elevators at the 800 metre high burj dubai which will reach ear-popping speeds of 42.36mph.

14. the shake table, san diego, usa


this $9 million machine, supporting a huge wind turbine in the photo, is the world’s only large-scale outdoor earthquake platform and, using hydraulics, is capable of shaking a 20 ton object horizontally at realistically high speeds. this kind of research could obviously prove invaluable as specialists will hopefully learn how to build quake-proof structures. it also looks like a massive amount of fun. visit the official home of the machine here.

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

how different would christmas day be if, after dinner, your dad gathered the family around the table and opened a game like ‘war on terror’ or ’serial killer: the board game’?

amazingly, this may have happened for some as all of the board games below have been / are still available to buy and each one has caused some degree of controversy, the reasons for which will quickly become apparent. some of them are pretty horrible and their inclusion in this list does not in any way condone their creation.

1. public assistance: why bother working for a living?



originally released in the 80s, slammed by many and then banned from most shops. it’s similar to playing monopoly but with some twists, including… there are 2 different journeys on the board: ‘working person’s rut’ or ‘able-bodied welfare recipient’s promenade’. you start off by collecting a $500 welfare check at the ‘collect all benefits’ spot. if you pick up an ‘out of wedlock child’ people who chose to work are obliged to pay you money when you pass the ‘1st of the month’ square.

the game is still available to buy online here.

2. ghettopoly



released in 2003 by david chang and obviously not endorsed by hasbro, ghettopoly is a parody of monopoly. houses are called ‘crack houses’ and hotels are ‘projects’, chance (i mean ‘hustle’) cards now contain messages such as ‘you got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. collect $50 from each playa’ and playing pieces include a gun, a bottle of beer and a marijuana plant. the game was discontinued after mass protest and ghettopoly.com is now defunct. however you can still visit ghettopoly.co.uk although i’m not sure whether your online order would be successful.

3. serial killer: the board game



this extremely grim affair was created by serial killer enthusiast tobias allen in the early 90s and was quickly banned in canada. the board game was packaged in a bodybag and the objective was to kill as many people (originally babies until mr allen realised he may have pushed it a bit far) and ensuring capture by police only took place in u.s. states without the death penalty. unsurprisingly the game is now (officially at least) unavailable to buy.

4. battle to baghdad



battle to baghdad: the fight for freedom was created and released in 2005 by construction worker rick medina. set in 2003, the object is to conquer baghdad and take out saddam hussein whilst hoping not to pick up cards such as ‘car bomber… you lose 200 troops’ and ‘disgrace: some soldiers are found guilty of unlawful treatment and inhumane acts of violence toward iraqi prisoners. you lose 100 troops!’. anti-war groups unsuccessfully attempted to get the game banned and currently battletobaghdad.com seems to be down but you can still purchase the game from medina’s website here.

5. juden raus



juden raus (jews out) is a hideous and infamous propaganda board game created by the nazis in 1936 and given to as many kids as possible, the object being to take control of jews wearing pointy hats and get them off the board and outside the walled city as quickly as possible by way of a dice throw. that’s all you really need to know apart from the fact that, thankfully, you can’t buy the game anymore.

6. frischfleisch



as you may have guessed, frischfleisch translates as ‘fresh flesh’ or ‘fresh meat’ and with the addition of the illustration on the front cover i reckon either translation works. it’s a board game in which you take control of a group of humans stranded on a deserted island with rescue only a month away. the objective is to stay alive long enough to enjoy the rescue, whether that be through the consumption of fruit, animals or other humans. the game is now discontinued but the makers’ website still has a page devoted to the cannibalism themed rarity here.

7. war on terror, the boardgame




the war on terror game was designed by 2 cambridge entrepreneurs and released to a huge amount of criticism, to which one of the men replied, “some people suggest that turning the war on terror into a board game is a tad insensitive. i always reply that starting a war is insensitive; a board game is just fun for all the family”. players start the game as an empire anywhere in the world and depending on various choices made, the following can take place in the quest for world dominance… ’send secret messages; fund terrorism; make deals; renege on deals; wage war; expand your empire; forge secret alliances; fund regime changes; kidnap politicians; be the terrorists’. the game can be bought here.

8. capital punishment



released in 1981, each player begins this funfest controlling 4 characters: a murderer, a rapist, an arsonist and a kidnapper. you can win in 2 ways - either 1. ‘maneuver your murderer, rapist, arsonist, and kidnapper along the path of justice into life imprisonment, death row, or the electric chair, or 2. ‘bring your liberals out of their ivory tower” and “use them to ‘spring’ your opponent’s criminals from the path of justice… send them back on the street where their activities make your opponent’s innocent citizens into victims of crime’.

9. blacks & whites



apparently designed for educational use by the psychology department of the university of california at davis, blacks & whites is basically a property-buying board game with a difference. before starting, each player chooses to be black or white, the choice resulting in the following differences…

whites:

- are the majority
- start with a million dollars
- can buy property anywhere.

blacks:

- are the minority
- start with one hundred thousand dollars
- can not buy certain properties
- draw from a separate chance deck
- collect less money for completing a lap around the gameboard.

for more info, go here.

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

i say ‘alternative’ but for many kids some of the examples shown below are the norm, be it through choice, location, cost restrictions or otherwise. either way, all these schools are creatively designed to say the least and there are plenty more to be marvelled at all over the world. if you know of any that deserve a mention, let us know.

1. cave school, ziyun, china

photos: reuters

above is dongzhong (translation: ‘mid-cave’) primary school in china’s guizhou province. as you can see, the whole school is housed in a huge naturally formed cave in the side of a mountain and looks absolutely incredible. considering the surroundings the conditions look pretty good and i’m guessing the kids who attend learn some invaluable lessons purely through the location.

2. underground school, northern virginia, usa

photos: treehugger

terraset elementary school in reston is one of the few schools on earth that’s been built under the earth. the decision to create a school in this way was apparently prompted by the energy crisis in the early 70s, the intention being to create a building that was as energy-concious as possible whilst still providing all the necessary facilities for local kids. a small hill in 14 acres of woodland was flattened, the school was placed on top and then earth covered the structure. to read more about the history of the building and the problems it faced due to its design, go here.

3. floating school, halong bay, vietnam


photo: antonogurl
 
the majority of tourists who visit vietnam (around 90%) will end up at halong bay, a huge stretch of coastline containing nearly 2′000 islands of varying size. surrounding many of the islands are floating villages - small communities of locals who have probably never lived on solid ground. above is one of many floating schools to be found dotted around the shores, flanked by school boats, the floating village’s equivalent to a school bus. in case you can’t read the sign…

“this construction was funded by the embassy of united kingdom through the national fund for vietnamese children.”

4. monolithic dome school, arizona, usa



there’s no doubt about it: this school looks like a building from another world. as if that weren’t enough, the powers that be also named it ‘frontier elementary school’. the structure itself is a monolithic dome - a recently popular method of construction that is surprisingly robust and extremely cost effective. a circular concrete base is set, an airfoam dome is inflated to the correct size and then reinforced using a variety of materials including a spray mix of concrete. you can read more about the process here and see a list of dome schools here.

5. shipping container school, amsterdam, netherlands


photos: purple cloud

this little beauty is daltonschool ‘de kleine kapitein’ in amsterdam, i believe a temporary home for the kindergarten attendees until new premises are completed in 2009. it’s a shame it’s just a stop-gap though as the use of shipping containers as habitable premises is a rapidly growing area of interest amongst designers and architects due to the many obvious advantages e.g. relative low-cost, huge abundance of containers to work with…

go here to see some permanent container projects, including a couple of school containers.

(click on photos for whoppers)



welcome to alt-erlaa, a social-housing complex in vienna.

built between 1973 and 1985, this incredible, government funded 27-storey complex accomodates approximately 10′000 low-income residents amongst a healthy amount of greenery. as you can see, the blocks are topped with outdoor swimming pools (used regularly by 70% of residents), but the facilities available don’t end there. others include: indoor swimming pools, fitness rooms, solariums, saunas, tennis courts, schools, 2 medical centres, church, shopping mall, restaurants, 3′400 underground parking spaces and a metro station. the complex even runs its own tv station. the austrians apparently believe that for any housing project to succeed in the long-term a strong community bond is essential and looking at these photos its hard to disagree.

all photos are from the complex’s official website which can be seen (in german) here. the architect responsible for alt-erlaa is dr harry glück. a translated version of an interview with him about the housing project can be read here.

[update] thanks to reader alessandro, go here for the google maps link.

’shadow’ - helsinki, 2005 (photo credit: gari.baldi)

unfortunately the surreal scene above was actually an art installation by kaarina kaikkonen on the streets of helsinki, simply rows and rows of clothing suspended above the roads. i hope it stayed. kaikkonen seems to have a thing for 2nd hand clothing: she also assembled 3000 men’s jackets and placed them neatly on the steps of helsinki cathedral in 2000 (see below). unfortunately some of the dye from the jackets seeped into the stone underneath leaving a permanent reminder for years to come.

‘way’ - helsinki cathedral, 2000