design
10 annoyingly brilliant office interiors
in an ideal world all company directors would invest in their workforce to the point where the office didn’t resemble a huge ice cube filled with back-breaking plastic chairs, mdf tables and computers less powerful than my old commodore plus-4. the sad fact is, for the majority of the world’s office-dwelling workers at least, company offices are some of the most inhospitable places on earth…
the most dramatic chapel on earth
if god was real and happened to be a sci-fi fan i reckon the cadet chapel at the air force academy in colorado would be his chapel of choice. it looks like no place of worship you’ve ever seen and from the outside resembles a row of 17 angular spacecraft sitting on their back-ends, ready to shoot off at any minute. the chapel and its surrounding complex was designed by walter netsch of architectural firm skidmore, owings & merrill and construction was completed in 1963. no sooner had the spire-fest been announced than the public outcry began…
extremely impressive shiny balls
the enormous 34ft diameter shiny ball pictured above goes by the name of ‘la géode’. this stunning metallic structure houses a 1000m² hemispheric imax screen at the ‘cité des sciences et de l’industrie’ in paris. it was designed in 1983 by french architect adrien fainsilber and then realised by engineer gérard chamaillou. it’s apparently one of the largest geodesic domes on earth.
2 stunning and surreal gasometer conversions
the reason for this post is to show you 2 incredible converted gasometers and illustrate that demolition shouldn’t always be the answer when industrial structures come to the end of their career. with a bit of imagination even an enormous disused gas container can look incredibly inviting whilst also serving a new purpose.
man vs mountain: avalanche control structures
one of the places i’d refuse to set up home would have to be at the bottom of a mountain with a history of avalanche activity. unfortunately for some that choice doesn’t seem to exist and after reading a post over at the highly recommended blog pruned yesterday the frightening world of avalanche survival systems nearly became an obsession, for a couple of reasons.
how to disguise a water tower and confuse the public
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…
aerial geometry: 5 circular communities from the sky
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
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.
the grand shaft - amazing military engineering
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
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.
