50 Strange Buildings of the World

1. The Crooked House (Sopot, Poland)

Construction of the building started in in January 2003 and in December 2003 it was finished. House architecture is based on Jan Marcin Szancer (famous Polish drawer and child books illustrator) and Per Dahlberg (Swedish painter living in Sopot) pictures and paintings.

Image via: brocha

2. Forest Spiral - Hundertwasser Building (Darmstadt, Germany)

The Hundertwasser house “Waldspirale” (”Forest Spiral”) was built in Darmstadt between 1998 and 2000. Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the famous Austrian architect and painter, is widely renowned for his revolutionary, colourful architectural designs which incorporate irregular, organic forms, e.g. onion-shaped domes.

The structure with 105 apartments wraps around a landscaped courtyard with a running stream. Up in the turret at the southeast corner, there is a restaurant, including a cocktail bar.

Image via: Kikos Dad

3. The Torre Galatea Figueras (Spain)

Image via: manuelfloresv

4. Ferdinand Cheval Palace a.k.a Ideal Palace (France)

Image via: Mélisande*

5. The Basket Building (Ohio, United States)

The Longaberger Basket Company building in Newark, Ohio might just be a strangest office building in the world. The 180,000-square-foot building, a replica of the company’s famous market basket, cost $30 million and took two years to complete. Many experts tried to persuade Dave Longaberger to alter his plans, but he wanted an exact replica of the real thing.

Image via: addicted Eyes

6. Kansas City Public Library (Missouri, United States)

This project, located in the heart of Kansas City, represents one of the pioneer projects behind the revitalization of downtown.

The people of Kansas City were asked to help pick highly influential books that represent Kansas City. Those titles were included as ‘bookbindings’ in the innovative design of the parking garage exterior, to inspire people to utilize the downtown Central Library.

Image via: jonathan_moreau

7. Wonderworks (Pigeon Forge, TN, United States)

8. Habitat 67 (Montreal, Canada)

Expo 67, one of the world’s largest universal expositions was held in Montreal. Housing was one of the main themes of Expo 67.

The cube is the base, the mean and the finality of Habitat 67. In its material sense, the cube is a symbol of stability. As for its mystic meaning, the cube is symbol of wisdom, truth, moral perfection, at the origin itself of our civilization.

354 cubes of a magnificent grey-beige build up one on the other to form 146 residences nestled between sky and earth, between city and river, between greenery and light.

Image via: ken ratcliff

9. Cubic Houses (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

The original idea of these cubic houses came about in the 1970s. Piet Blom has developed a couple of these cubic houses that were built in Helmond.

The city of Rotterdam asked him to design housing on top of a pedestrian bridge and he decided to use the cubic houses idea. The concept behind these houses is that he tries to create a forest by each cube representing an abstract tree; therefore the whole village becomes a forest.

Image via: vpzone

10. Hang Nga Guesthouse a.k.a Crazy House (Vietnam)

The house is owned by the daughter of the ex-president of Vietnam, who studied architecture in Moscow.

It does not comply with any convention about house building, has unexpected twists and turns, roofs and rooms. It looks like a fairy tale castle, it has enormous “animals” like a giraffe and a spider, no window is rectangular or round, and it can be visited like a museum.

Image via: JonasPhoto

11. Chapel in the Rock (Arizona, United States)

Image via: santanartist

12. Dancing Building (Prague, Czech Republic)

Image via: jemil75

13. Calakmul building a.k.a La Lavadora a.k.a The Washing Mashine (Mexico, Mexico)

Image via: marj k

14. Kettle House (Texas, United States)

Image via: y luckyfukr

15. Manchester Civil Justice Centre (Manchester, UK)

Image via: tj.blackwell

16. Nakagin Capsule Tower (Tokyo, Japan)

Image via: pict_u_re

17. Mind House (Barcelona, Spain)

Image via: angelocesare

18. Stone House (Guimarães, Portugal)

image via: Jsome1

19. Shoe House (Pennsylvania, United States)

Image via: James Gordon

20. Weird House in Alps

Image via: nicolasnova

21. The Ufo House (Sanjhih, Taiwan)

Image via: cypherone @ Taiwan

22. The Hole House (Texas, United States)

Image via: melinnis

23. Ryugyong Hotel (Pyongyang, North Korea)

Image via: Pricey

24. The National Library (Minsk, Belarus)

Image via: ledsmagazine.com

25. Grand Lisboa (Macao)

Image via: Michael McDonough

26. Wall House (Groningen, Netherlands)

Image via: Liao Yusheng

27. Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao, Spain)

Image via: disgustipado

28. Bahá’í House of Worship a.k.a Lotus Temple (Delhi, India)

Image via: MACSURAK

29. Container City (London, UK)

Image via: y Fin Fahey

30. Erwin Wurm: House Attack (Viena, Austria)

Image via: Dom Dada

31. Wooden Gagster House (Archangelsk, Russia)

Image via: deputy-dog.com

32. Air Force Academy Chapel (Colorado, United States)

Image via: dbking

33. Solar Furnace (Odeillo, France)

Image via: f2g2

34. Dome House (Florida, United States)

Image via: easement

35. Beijing National Stadium (Beijing, China)

Image via: littlemalt

36. Fashion Show Mall (Las Vegas, United States)

Image via: b2tse

37. Luxor Hotel & Casino (Las Vegas, United States)

Image via: wallyg

38. Zenith Europe (Strasbourg, France)

Image via: Edouard55

39. Civic Center (Santa Monica)

Image via: karenchu121

40. Mammy’s Cupboard (Natchez, MS, United States)

Image via: Live Simply

41. Pickle Barrel House (Grand Marais, Michigan, United States)

Image via: the naked fauxtographer

42. The Egg (Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York, United States)

Image via: iessi

43. Gherkin Building (London, UK)

Image via: Lawrie Cate

44. Nord LB building (Hannover, Germany)

Image via: iterby

45. Lloyd’s building (London, UK)

Image via: ryanfb

46. “Druzhba Holiday Center Hall (Yalta, Ukraine)

Image via: Argenberg

47. Fuji television building (Tokyo, Japan)

Image via: kamoda

48. UCSD Geisel Library (San Diego, California, United States)

Image via: ewen and donabel

49. Ripley’s Building (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada)

Image via: Bekah267

50. The Bank of Asia a.k.a Robot Building (Bangkok, Thailand)

China's Electronic Waste Village

Mountain of Waste

The city of Guiyu is home to 5,500 businesses devoted to processing discarded electronics, known as e-waste. According to local websites, the region dismantles 1.5 million pounds of junked computers, cell phones and other devices a year.

Happy new year!

Happy new year!

Olympic architecture Top 10: past, present and future

As we say goodbye to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, let's take a look back at the glories of Olympic architecture from the past, and look forward to even more innovation to come. The competition for the honor of hosting the Olympic Games is an intense, worldwide fight, but with that prize comes the tremendous responsibility of building a complex of structures to support the games.

Every Olympic city has risen to the challenge, putting its best design and creative minds into the limelight for all the world to see. Some of the efforts have been more successful than others, and a few of the host countries have spent decades paying off the debt incurred by such architectural ambition. Hit continue to see our picks for the Top 10 best Olympic buildings in history.

Bird’s Nest (Beijing National Stadium) 2008
Beijing National Stadium’s “Bird’s Nest” nickname could be in honor of the U.S. Olympic Team’s numerous eggs laid there, but despite that, its soaring architecture puts it at the top of our list. The Chinese government held a competition in 2002 to see who could put together the most beautiful Olympic stadium yet, and a consortium of architects consisting of the Pritzker Prize-winning Herzog & de Meuron teamed up with ArupSport and China Architecture Design & Research Group to create this wild-looking tangle of steel.

London Aquatics Centre 2012
Architect Zaha Hadid set out to top any aquatics center ever built with her fantastic design, and it’s so innovative that a lot of engineers are questioning whether such a structure can even be built at all. Don’t fret, Zaha, that’s what they said about the Empire State Building. The Aquatics Center’s sweeping steel roof will be clad in aluminum, and the interior of this wild-looking roof will be made of wood, the type of which is still yet to be chosen. Construction began on this jaw-dropping structure last month.

Water Cube (Beijing National Aquatics Center) 2008
Set up a huge steel frame and hang hundreds of asymmetrical plastic bubbles on it and the result is the other-worldly-looking Beijing National Aquatics Center, affectionately known as the Water Cube. It's not really a cube at all, though, but a rectangular box that’s 102 feet high. We especially like its squeaky-clean design, punctuated by colorful LED lighting embedded into the exterior that makes the building look like an ’80s disco taking a bubble bath.

China Central Television (CCTV) Headquarters Building and Television Cultural Centre 2008
While it’s not an official Olympics building, construction of the China Central Television Headquarters building was finished just in time for the opening of the Olympic Games, and many of its facilities were used for the 17-day broadcast. One of the largest office buildings on the planet, the 49-story building looks like it’s about to fall over. Not to worry — the structure, dubbed “Big Shorts,” its specially designed and built to withstand huge earthquakes.

Palestra at Olympia, 776 BC
It doesn’t look like much now, but starting in 776 BC, Palestra was where Olympic athletes suffered through their training, most of which was done stark naked, ladies. Near here is the first Olympic village, called Olympia. Legend has Heracles, son of the Greek god Zeus, building the first Olympic Stadium, measuring its size by stepping off 400 paces and calling it a Stadium (or “Stadion” in ancient Greek). That distance is still used today — 400 meters is roughly the distance covered when you run one lap around pretty much any stadium track in the world.

London Olympic Stadium 2012
This stadium doesn’t even fully exist yet, but will be the center of attention at the 2012 Olympics in London. Construction started in May, and the 80,000-seat structure will feature a roof that somehow “stretches around the stadium” to cover the spectators and protect lighting and sound systems for the opening ceremony. We’re wondering how they’re going to top that Chinese flying torch lighter of this year’s opener, but the Brits have four years to figure that one out.

Salt Lake City Olympic Flame 2002
This cauldron from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City was situated of the top of the south edge of the rebuilt Rice-Eccles Stadium for the big event, and it’s still being lit up on special occasions today. It’s been moved from the top of the stadium into a plaza next door, a pleasant place for its retirement complete with reflecting pool and waterfalls. We should all be so lucky when we’re put out to pasture.

Munich Olympic Stadium 1972
While the 1972 games were ill-fated with terrorist violence, architects also remember the games for the spectacular stadium made with giant canopies of acrylic glass hung by steel cables. Soon after this one was built, it seemed to touch off an informal competition where each of the Olympic cities following it tried to top its asymmetrical allure. Now such innovation has been widely copied all over the place. In fact, didn’t we just travel through an airport that looks a lot like this? We’re looking at you, Denver.

Montréal Olympic Stadium 1976
In the most ambitious Olympics project ever, this organic architecture had a retractable roof that was opened and closed by a colossal 583-foot structure, the tallest inclined tower in the world. It’s more than just a stadium, with the Olympic swimming pool located just under the massive tower, and the velodrome in a similar building near its base. Too bad the tower wasn’t finished in time for the 1976 Olympics, due to strikes and cost overruns. Since then, the building’s main tenant, the Montréal Expos, left town for Washington, leaving the grand building without a main tenant. Sadly, it's now seen by many Montréalers as a white elephant.

Sydney Olympic Stadium 2000
While this stadium, built for the Sydney 2000 games, looks fairly conventional these days, it still stands as the highest-capacity Olympic Stadium ever built. This one seated 110,000 screaming fans for the Olympics, but has since been reconfigured to accommodate movable seating. It now seats 83,500, with most of the spectators nestled under awnings to keep them high and dry even in the worst Aussie weather.

Top 10 technology wonders that don't exist yet

We spend a lot of time here exposing you to the gadgets and technologies out there already making your life easier and more interesting "today." But the truth is, behind the scenes, our favorite pastime is actually sniffing around for those gadgets still in the idea phase. We're constantly searching for these electronic monstrosities so far ahead of their time that only concept designers dare tackle giving such products a face and a name. After the jump, take a peek into our future fetish and 10 nonexistent — but awesome — tech toys that take our gadget lust to a more advanced level.

 

10. Dattoos: Interactive Tattoos
No one brings concept design to reality like Frog Design. Winners of numerous design awards over the years, Frog has become synonymous with powerful technology meeting artistic design. So when we found Frog's Dattoo (interactive tattoo) concept, it was like finding futurist gold. Designed by Hartmut Esslinger, Dattoos would conceivably bring us to that final convergence of man and machine. The Dattoos would offer: DNA-reader and identification technology, nanosensors and interactive "touch reading," full voice interaction, bionic nano chips and various cybernetic components. While Dattoos would definitely look cool, what Esslinger is imagining here is nothing short of the Borg. But hey, who said being a mindless drone working within a hive mind had to be drab?

 

9. Astrium Spaceplane
The race to full-on space tourism is in full swing, but we're still in the early stages of the industry, so naturally style and comfort has taken a backseat to safety and practicality. The Astrium Spaceplane looks to up the ante and allow spacefaring travelers the opportunity to look into infinity whilst nestled in comfortable and familiar surroundings. Australian designer Marc Newson's concept vehicle doesn't propel passengers into a far-out science-fiction realm, but if the near term of space tourism really looks like this the spaceports will likely be jam-packed and delayed like your favorite local commercial airport in no time.

 

8. Custom Kicks
Sneaker culture has transcended the world of fashion and transformed into an art form unto itself. Brand loyalty and price-tag importance has fallen by the wayside as pure originality and exclusive design have become the mark of a true sneaker aficionado. But nowadays, finding one of those unseen designs has become even more difficult. Enter Custom Kicks, a concept designed by the Inventables studio. Custom Kicks would allow wearers to instantly change the design of their shoes on the fly with a mere push of a button. Using a tiny iPod-like device, sneaker fanatics would beam a new pre-designed pattern to their feet and immediately up the ante on the fashion wars. We want this yesterday.

 

7. Nikon 360
In Star Trek: Voyager and Deep Space Nine, characters used a holographic camera to snap instant three-dimensional replicas of certain moments in time. We're not quite there yet, but in the meantime the idea behind the Nikon 360 concept camera seems like a reasonable facsimile. According to Ye Chen, designer of the device, the camera would take an all-round picture using a built-in inclinometer indicating the horizontal position prior to execution. Sure, panoramic photos are already in existence, but they take a little more work. With the Nikon 360, capturing surround-vision images would become literally a snap.

 

6. Honda Cub Motocycle
Sam Jibert's Honda Cub Motocycle concept vehicle takes the macho out of the road hog and adds just enough clean design and geek friendliness to ensure a consumer hit. Looking like a cross between a 19th-century bicycle and a modern-day crotch rocket, the Honda Cub Motocycle is not only cute but enviro-friendly since it uses a hydrogen fuel cell. If Dean Kamen's Segway had been this cool-looking, maybe Steve Jobs' initial prediction that it would change the way cities were built would have come true.

 

5. Pills To Go
British designer Priestman Goode has envisioned a product so simple and practical, it's astounding to think that this isn't already available. Pills To Go combines two caplets of your favorite medicinal salve with a hearty gulp of water all in one package. So simple, so convenient, yet as of now, still a futuristic concept. When eventually brought to market by some company — and you can rest assured that it will definitely happen — Pills To Go is sure to be one of the biggest sellers of all time.

 

4. WPA Wearable Power Suit
Vlady Spetkovsky designed the WPA wearable power suit as a project for the Bezalel Academy of art and design in Israel. Although Spetkovsky doesn't offer much detail regarding what the suit would actually do, after watching his animated 3D movie showing the suit in action it's reasonable to assume that it would increase the strength and speed of the wearer via an accumulator-powered exoskeleton. That's right friends, with suits like this, one day we'll all get to live out our superhero fantasies.

 

3. B-Membrain Computer
The B-Membrain won't transport you into another dimension or suddenly become self-aware and declare that all humans are obsolete, but it does offer something we can all relate to: sexy hardware. Winner of Intel Korea's recent PC Design Contest (Challenger category), the B-Membrain does away with the computer monitor and instead beams images to any surface via a built-in projector. As for input, the keyboard is described by its designer Won-Suk Lee as a touchscreen interface. Sure, the B-Membrain looks weird and you'd probably have trouble figuring out where to put to the oddly shaped contraption, but never has a more sci-fi-ish computer been so within reach.

 

2. Credit Card of the Future
Paying bills will never be fun, but in the future there's a chance that you'll at least be able to pay the piper in style. To that end, designer Jacob Palmborg mocked up a universal payment device that simultaneously links to all of your banking and credit accounts. The unnamed device would keep a real-time accounting of just how much you've spent, and what your near-term financial forecast looks like based on recent purchase activity. And if that's not Big Brother enough for you, the device would only be accessible via biometric (think thumbprint, eyescan, etc.) verification. With RFID tap-and-pay bankcards already being used throughout the U.S., it seems like this little gadget's emergence is just a matter of time.

 

1. Timeflex Stick-On Watch
It's been awhile since a cross-demographic product has swept the country, but something like the Timeflexstick-on watch might just do the trick. Imagined as a non-permanent, self-gumming timepiece, the Timeflex would make the perfect accessory for style-conscious millennials (read: teens), on-the-go professionals, and athletes (swimmers, rock climbers, runners, etc.). The outlines of the device are meant to be fluorescent, with the interior sporting a transparent surface so you can show off your fashion-forward sensibility, and a little skin in process.

Peta Persaingan Situs Sosial

Apakah anda pengguna Friendster, MySpace, atau Facebook? Berikut adalah sekilas peta dari persaingan situs sosial yang ada di dunia saat ini. Coba tebak situs apa yang paling populer di Indonesia? (Atau tepatnya di Asia Pasifik) :) 

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