just came across the left-hand photo on flickr by chance and was immediately confused and intrigued.

to be found in berlin, it’s actually a faithful recreation of one corner of karl schinkel’s bauakademie (building academy), the building which used to stand in the same spot before being damaged during the war and subsequently demolished in 1962 to make way for the ministry of foreign affairs. needless to say, that building has also since been demolished.

due to the importance of the original bauakademie (both culturally and architecturally) there are now, apparently, plans underway to rebuild the entire structure as close to the original as possible. what i’m not sure of is why the single corner that was built (before being surrounded by the shell covered scaffolding you see below) a few years back. according to some dodgy translations via google i get the impression that it was built as a restoration exercise, both to teach students about restoration itself and to show the public how faithful the rebuild could be.

either way, it’s a great monument that makes for a strange photo.

photo source

:: bauakademie on wikipedia

:: association for the promotion of karl friedrich schinkel’s academy of architecture

all other treehouses now pale into insignificance.

i received this picture from a reader a couple of weeks ago, along with the next 2, and couldn’t tear my eyes away for what seemed like hours.

after a quick bout of googling i discovered the origin of the larger photo: it was taken by darius kinsey, a guy i’d previously been unaware of, who was a ‘prolific photographer of logging activities in the pacific northwest’. this particular photograph shows a cedar stump house in edgecomb, washington, dates back to 1901 and has instantly become one of my favourites. the other 2 photos, i’m still not sure of - if anyone knows of a source to be credited, please let me know. i’m guessing the clearer photo is also by kinsey.

anyway, this got me wondering about other hollowed-tree residences and after much hopping i eventually came across tunneltree.com, a brilliant site rammed full of old photographs depicting exactly that and more. to cut a long and boring story short: the site’s now offline. hopefully it’s temporary. unfortunately i only saved a few of the pictures from the site and none of the info. i’m just gonna post the pictures below and hope the site comes back online, at which point i’ll update this post. in the meantime, if you happen to know anything relating to the pictures feel free to spout it in the comments section.

(below) as you may have guessed, the interior of the enormous tree on the left has been hollowed to hold a shop, as seen on the right, with a “ceiling 50′ high”.

(below) obviously not residences but a couple of incredible ‘drive-thru trees’.

in the late 1920s, early 1930s, before radio navigation was widely used, pilots of small planes were forced to use familiar landmarks on the ground as a way to find the runway they would hopefully land safely on. there was even a campaign started by the 99s (a women’s pilot group) in the early 1930s, the objective being to paint directions to the nearest airport on buildings and structures across the u.s., the result being thousands of enormous ‘road-signs’ for pilots scattered across the nation.

photo from skyscraperpage.com

when i first saw the photo above i imagined/hoped it would be pretty easy to find other brilliant photos of similar airmarks but it turns out that in the early 40s the u.s. war department demanded that all coastal airmarks be wiped out, all those inland to be left to deteriorate naturally. the result of that seems to be a frustrating lack of photos. if you know of any other enormous airmarks on local libraries, cinemas etc, let me know and i’ll try and get some photos together of the world’s largest directional signs. i’ve seen a few painted by the 99s on airfields themselves but i’d be more interested to find some more painted on huge structures like the tank above.

any ideas?

photo from airspacemag.com

photo source: ian iong

approximately 3′000 years ago the people of cordillera took on one of mankind’s most impressive landscape modification projects in order to farm effectively on the surrounding mountainsides and slowly transform the region into what some now call the eighth wonder of the world. due to the sheer scale of this farming system it’s hard to disagree: the rice terraces of the philippine cordilleras, if laid out end to end, would stretch halfway round the globe. if this ingenious feat had been accomplished in recent times the clearly enormous task would have seemed more than impressive, however the fact that it was completed thousands of years ago without the use of modern apparatus and machinery takes the terraces and integrated irrigation systems to a whole new level.

photo source: dudz torres

the idea behind field terracing is simple and something not unique to the philippines: carve horizontal ledges into hills, essentially creating thousands of small walled fields from base to peak in which to grow crops and retain much needed water. however, in the cordilleras region this has been applied to an area on an elsewhere unseen scale: approximately 10′360 square kilometres. entire mountains, sometimes thousands of feet high, sculpted like blocks of wood. that itself is incredible. then you have the irrigation system: the natural streams and rivers of each terraced mountain and its forests have been diverted using a huge and complex arrangement of canals, sluices and taps, the same water is then pushed to the highest terraces using miles of wooden piping. when the terraces fill up they overflow and start to fill the terraced field below, and the cycle continues until the entire mini-waterfall covered mountain is carrying an immense weight of water.

photo source: ian iong

the rice terraces are, understandably, a huge tourist attraction and have attracted attention and money from across the world. however the tourism is also thought to be responsible for the start of what could be a slow death of the terraces for a couple of reasons. firstly, the new generation of locals see the hospitality industry created by the terraces as a far more appealing line of work than the constant farming and attention needed to sustain the terraces themselves. secondly, water isn’t as readily available as in the past due to the effects of an earthquake in 1990 and the new demand for water itself from the tourist industry.

for that reason unesco has placed the terraces on a list of world heritage sites it believes to be ‘in danger’ in hope of starting a successful rehabilitation of the world’s most incredible agricultural engineering system.

sources: 1, 2, 3

the hollywood sign is undoubtedly one of the most well-known landmarks on earth and the fact that it exists, proudly sitting on hollywood hills advertising the world’s movie industry, has never seemed strange to most people. what is strange (to me at least) is the fact that the 50ft high sign was originally an advert of a different kind in a couple of ways. check out the photo above. up until 1949 the sign had an extra 4 letters and was created as an enormous marketing tool to help sell a housing development of the same name which sat in the hills above los angeles. eventually in 1949, after the properties were sold and the sign was redundant, control was assumed by the hollywood chamber of commerce who agreed to maintain the sign without the ‘l-a-n-d’ attached and minus the 4,000 power-hungry flashing lightbulbs.

what intrigues me more though are the numerous imitations of the structure across the globe. i managed to find a few (below) after seeing a list on wikipedia (see here), if you know of any other photos let me know. i won’t label the photos as i’m assuming you can all work out the locations from the signs.

 
(cheers to reader adam for this mammoth example in pennsylvania)

seeing these makes me wish that all communities were clearly labelled in a similar fashion, preferably at mid to high altitude using the same typeface. even better still, towns and cities should erect these gigantic adverts in neighbouring areas so as to advertise the place to outsiders.

here’s hoping.

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

huge steel structures similar to the one photographed above are a common sight here in the uk and can usually be found rusting next to busy, permanently jammed roads, the location seemingly picked purely to confuse kids in the back of slow-moving cars. when i was even smaller than i am now it never dawned on me to even question the existence of these massive cylindrical beasts - maybe i was so used to seeing them that they were simply part of the landscape - and i only discovered their ‘raison d’etre’ a few years ago when a story told by my girlfriend made me realise that i didn’t already know.

anyway, they’re called gasometers and, as you may have guessed, are basically enormous gas containers. there’s a simple diagram here illustrating the method by which gasometers store the gas and a fairly decent explanation of all things gasometer at wikipedia here.

the reason for this post though is to show you 2 incredible converted gasometers that resemble structures from another world 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.

oberhausen gasometer, germany

website - googlemaps

photo sources: (clockwise from top left) 1, 2, 3

now resembling something straight from the set of a sci-fi film, this 117.5m tall structure in germany was once the world’s 2nd largest active gasometer. obviously it lost that title when it stopped containing gas and then, following renovation, became europe’s tallest exhibition hall. since then it’s become a major attraction and has a constant stream of visitors eager to check out the interior and the exhibitions, concerts and seminars it plays host to. the lighting in this place is incredible and compliments the industrial architecture so effectively as to briefly transport you to another world.

gasometer city, austria

website - googlemaps

photo source

before the early 1980s these 4 delicate monsters helped to supply vienna with gas. then in 1995, following the gasometers’ retirement in 1984, a competition of sorts was announced by local authorities in order to gain an outside opinion of the future of the structures. 4 architects’ design entries were chosen, 1 for each gasometer, and over the next few years they were transformed into what some residents now call ‘gasometer city’. each is divided into sections with apartments at the top, offices in the middle and shopping / entertainment venues at the base, the result being a slightly bizarre mini-city that’s absolutely full of character.

if you know of any other stunning, brilliant or just fantastic gasometer conversions let me know in the comments section.

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.

a search for video of the house took me to the charming little clip below, featuring a song about a train journey which passes the building - at around 45 seconds you can just make it out in the distance. not great but the song’s so pleasant that it just managed to calm me down after a shit day at work.

sources: 1, 2, 3

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

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

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