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. what you’re actually looking at is the top of an old 30′000 gallon water tower, brilliantly designed 85 years ago by architects who were asked to disguise what would have been an ugly 70ft high blot on the landscape of thorpeness - the village who benefited from its water storage capabilities until 1977.


photo: flickr user slim_boydim. click here for larger version

the water tank was removed in 1979 and since then this lanky house has been renovated on a few different occasions, the result being a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom home containing a total of 68 steps from top to bottom. the interior itself is very nicely done and can be seen at the building’s own website here where it seems you can also book a room and experience the place first-hand. you can also spy on the residence via google maps here.

sources: 1, 2, 3

images above are from google maps - click here to zoom in and out of the area.

while we’re on the subject of aerial geometry, check out these 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. maybe it’s just the sheer size of the place that makes it seem so densely populated. either way, have a look at the area on google maps hither and zoom right in to get a sense of scale.
incredible.

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. there’s a wikipedia link and google maps link for each example apart from the one in brondby - if anyone knows more about it let us know. as always, leave any other examples of similar communities in the comments.

1. sun city, arizona, usa - (wiki / google maps link)





2. nahalal, jezreel valley, israel - (wiki / google maps link)




3. unknown community, brondby, denmark (google maps link)





4. firuzabad, fars province, iran - (wiki / google maps link)





5. hamadan, hamadan province, iran - (wiki / google maps link)





sources: 1, 2

note: believe it or not, every now and then i receive emails from people who aren’t trying to sell me penis pumps and viagra. today i recieved what could be the best ever from a guy calling himself threepwood, the contents of which form a lot of the following post.



before today i didn’t realise this building existed but it’s so fucking incredible that as soon as a photo of it flashed before my eyes it instantly rocketed to the top of my non-existent ‘favourite buildings’ list. 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 (nikolai sutyagin - pictured bare-chested above), thus making it a homemade wooden skyscraper.

brilliant.

based in the russian city of archangelsk, ex-gangster nikolai originally intended the building to contain 2 floors but couldn’t help himself when he realised there was nothing to stop him adding more on top. nothing, that is, apart from the slow-off-the-mark local authorities who say that wooden buildings shouldn’t exceed 2 floors in height, the result being that the 144ft high building is now under threat of demolition, something which would be an absolute travesty in my opinion. slightly crazy but creative ex-gangster russian architects should be given free reign to build whatever they like.

this building is an absolute work of art.



sources: 1, 2

these guys are standing in one of the gigantic legs belonging to the ‘tallest structure ever moved by humans over the surface of the earth’: the 1/2km tall ‘troll a’ offshore gas platform in the north sea, owned by shell oil. with a total weight of 1.2million tonnes, the structure 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 174 nautical miles.



the picture below illustrates the massive scale of the platform…



all pictures from statoil.

info sources: 1, 2, 3

photo: enough

welcome to dignity village, inc.

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. since then the 60 or so residents have impressively created their own self-regulating mini-city with help from the surrounding community.

dignity village’s features include:

- its own village council with board of directors and other elected officials
- non-profit organisation status
- its own website, dignityvillage.org
- internet access
- communal television room
- 24 hour village security
- 5 fundamental rules which must be adhered to by residents…



considering the history of the residents it seems to be a pretty well organised community who were thankfully given a chance by locals. the future of the camp is uncertain but you can be sure they’ll fight to the end to keep the place intact.

you can see the village on googe maps here.

photos: portland ground

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 its harbour below. without it the troops had to navigate badly maintained winding roads from top to bottom.

a huge 140ft shaft was dug into the ground to house the 3 intertwined staircases, the inner shaft peppered with windows to ensure light from above reached the soldiers running down to possible battle. engineer william twiss was adamant that a single staircase wouldn’t provide a big enough route down for a huge volume of people so he wrapped 3 stairways around each other, the 3 exit points meeting at the bottom where a tunnel leads to the town of dover.

photo sources, clockwise from top: whibs, jelltecks and conundrum37

apparently at one point, after the wars had subsided and the shaft wasn’t needed by troops, each of the 3 staircases was only to be used by certain people, as pointed out by the sign at the top of each…

1. officers and their ladies
2. sergeants and their wives
3. soldiers and their women

below is the top of the grand shaft as seen on google maps. here’s the direct link.




sources: 1, 2

photo: flickr user thomas - click here for massive version

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.

[update] thanks to ‘tobi g’ for sending this elbe tunnel ticket.



the tunnel is still used to a lesser extent today by pedestrians, cyclists and cars but is now considered more a tourist attraction due to it’s quirky nature.





sources: 1, 2

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. be sure to check out the source links at the bottom for more info.
so here are 6 of the best star forts on earth…

1. palmanova, italy (google maps / wiki)






2. bourtange, the netherlands (google maps / wiki)




3. goryokaku, japan (google maps / wiki)






4. almeida, portugal (google maps / wiki)





5. saint-martin-de-ré, france (google maps / wiki)





6. naarden, the netherlands (google maps / wiki)





sources: 1, 2, 3, 4