The Mysterious Abandoned Pod City in Taiwan

This Project is called ''Mystery Pod City''. It is on the very northernmost of Taiwan and it's famous as an abandoned Project housing.It Might be built in the early 80's .They have been built by government '' in an attempt to position this as a Luxurious holding location for the rich of Taipei''.The project is included 17 block and each block has 4 circular pods.The Concept behind this design might have been that they could expand the buildings vertically as required,simply by adding more pods on top.The site is included housing and amusement park one side Ocean and the other side hills.These Strange habitats have been completely abandoned for a number of years.One story says that the project had to be abandoned after several fatal accidents occurred during construction, and according to local rumors, this ghost city is now haunted by those who died building it.Unfortunately, the project may never be restarted and architect is unknown.
When I heard this story I didn't know which should write about the story of this habitats or write about this wonderful concept , by the way there isn't any information about this habitats.

cypherone @ Taiwan

cypherone @ Taiwan
cypherone @ Taiwan

Floating Cities - LILYPAD By Vincent Callebaut

Every thing will be changed.New Technologies are coming,New Environment and Big Trouble,Global Warming . It can Effect every thing.Global Warming will be going to increase the measure of water.Some islands prepare their disappearing to see that the management of the rising of the ocean level does not seem to worry the government beyond measure.

Vincent Callebaut - Lilypads (Copyright Vincent Callebaut) (click-2-enlarge)

In this way Architects try to find the solutions.This is an amazing Idea by Vincent Callebaut , a Belgian Architect.The Project is' LILYPAD, A Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugges' is one solution.

Vincent Callebaut - Lilypads (Copyright Vincent Callebaut) (click-2-enlarge)
''According to the less alarming forecasts of the GIEC (Intergovernmental group on the evolution of the climate), the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st Century with a status quo by 50 cm (versus 10 cm in the 20th Century). The international scientific scene assets that a temperature elevation of 1°C will lead to a water rising of 1 meter. This increase of 1 m would bring ground losses emerged of approximately 0.05% in Uruguay, 1% in Egypt, 6% in the Netherlands, 17.5% in Bangladesh and up to 80% approximately in the atoll Majuro in Oceania (Marshall and Kiribati islands and step by step the Maldives islands).''

Vincent Callebaut - Lilypads (Copyright Vincent Callebaut) (click-2-enlarge)

''If the first meter is not very funny with more than 50 million of people affected in the developing countries, the situation is worse with the second one. Countries like Vietnam, Egypt, Bangladesh, Guyana or Bahamas will see their most inhabited places swamped at each flood and their most fertile fields devastated by the invasion of salt water damaging the local ecosystems. New York, Bombay, Calcutta, Hô Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Miami, Lagos, Abidjan, Djakarta, Alexandria… not les that 250 million of climatic refugees and 9% of the GDP threatened if we not build protections related to such a threat.''

Vincent Callebaut - Lilypads (Copyright Vincent Callebaut) (click-2-enlarge)

''Whereas the Netherlands and the United Arabic Emirates « fatten » their beach with billion of euros to build their short-living polders and their protective dams for a decade, the project «Lilypad» deals with a tenable solution to the water rising! Actually, facing the worldwide ecological crisis, this floating Ecopolis has the double objective not only to widen sustainably in offshore the territories of the most developed countries such as the Monaco principality but above all to grant the housing of future climatic refugees of he next submerged ultra-marine territories such as the Polynesian atolls. Lilypad travels on the water line of the oceans, from the equator to the poles following the marine streams warm ascending of the Gulf Stream or cold descending of the Labrador.''

Vincent Callebaut - Lilypads (Copyright Vincent Callebaut) (click-2-enlarge)

''The floating structure in « branches » of the Ecopolis is directly inspired of the highly ribbed leave of the great lilypad of Amazonia Victoria Regia increased 250 times. Coming from the family of Nympheas, this aquatic plant with exceptional plasticity was discovered by the German botanist Thaddeaus Haenke and dedicated to the Queen Victoria of England in the 19th Century. The double skin is made of polyester fibres covered by a layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) like an anatase which by reacting to the ultraviolet rays enable to absorb the atmospheric pollution by photocatalytic effect. Entirely autosufficient, Lilypad takes up the four main challenges launched by the OECD in March 2008: climate, biodiversity, water and health. It reached a positive energetic balance with zero carbone emission by the integration of all the renewable energies (solar, thermal and photovoltaic energies, wind energy, hydraulic, tidal power station, osmotic energies, phytopurification, biomass) producing thus durably more energy that it consumes! True biotope entirely recyclable, this floating Ecopolis tends thus towards the positive eco-accountancy of the building in the oceanic ecosystems by producing and softening itself the oxygen and the electricity, by recycling the CO2 and the waste, by purifying and softening biologically the used waters and by integrating ecological niches, aquaculture fields and biotic corridors on and under its body to meet its own food needs.''

Vincent Callebaut - Lilypads (Copyright Vincent Callebaut) (click-2-enlarge)

Finally ,I just want mention that two things happen in this project,First The Idea of Touching Towers is now becoming Reality in small projects,a few architects designed some projects with this Idea and It's really interesting. Second , The idea of Floating Cities such as Floating Building is going to reality.But question about , Could it be Floating Cililization?Farmland? and Other issues.....

Source:www.vincent.callebaut.org

Banknote Building - by RA Studija

'Office Center 1000' is 10 floors office building designed in the form of a 1000 banknote.It's wonderful when you know that the Exterior consists of 4,500 pieces of glass with enamel design.The glass made in the Netherlands and shipped over. The Architects are RA Studija ,and building is in the Kaunas,Lithuania.

RA Studija - 1000 Lt, Kaunas, Lithuania (Copyright RA Studija) (click-2-enlarge)

There is an article,' Come and see the big banknote building' in The Baltic Times about this building.

RA Studija - 1000 Lt, Kaunas, Lithuania (Copyright RA Studija) (click-2-enlarge)

When you take a look at this building ,you find The Facade is so simple, picture of banknote dating from 1926 abstracted and distorted,just translated from source to reality,every thing is easy,but one more question?

RA Studija - 1000 Lt, Kaunas, Lithuania (Copyright RA Studija) (click-2-enlarge)

Is it a monumental building? or this building was designed for a New Company.what's the function of this Building?

RA Studija - 1000 Lt, Kaunas, Lithuania (Copyright RA Studija) (click-2-enlarge)
The Facade in the first view is amazing ,you enjoy it as a monumental theme,but is it working for a new office?!
RA Studija - 1000 Lt, Kaunas, Lithuania (Copyright RA Studija) (click-2-enlarge)

The Baltic Times mentions 'They say that money doesn't grow on trees. Well, in Kaunas it grows on buildings. Earlier, if tourists ever bothered to visit Lithuania's dog-eared interwar capital at all, it was to see the Italian Baroque majesty of Pazaislis or quirky Old Town highlights such as the Thunder House and the White Swan. Now, however, a contender for the title of oddest Kaunas tourist attraction of 2008 is Office Center 1000.'

RA Studija - 1000 Lt, Kaunas, Lithuania (Copyright RA Studija) (click-2-enlarge)
The Baltic Times mentions Jonas Plenta, marketing manager of Urmas, the company behind the project, insists that the new structure is not simply a mighty monument to the power of money.
“At around the same time we were assessing some of the design projects for a new office building in 2005, Lithuania was one of two new EU member states applying to join the euro zone. We happened to come across a very elegant banknote dating from 1926, and decided to use it as our overall theme.”

RA Studija - 1000 Lt, Kaunas, Lithuania (Copyright RA Studija) (click-2-enlarge)
It might be a new concept to make a monumental building from an abstract image,but we have to see which it's working in this Idea as a attraction Place.
RA Studija - 1000 Lt, Kaunas, Lithuania (Copyright RA Studija) (click-2-enlarge)
for more information about Ra Studija

A Mobile Chinatown - Superstar - MAD

It's amazing concept in Architecture.Mobile Town,can you believe it? we're going to the Future,I just saw this kind of buildings in stars war movies.But remember, It's just an initial Idea and when we take a look at the other issues in architecture then see what happen.This is one of the most question that we have to ask us before each design,Where will we go and what are the requirements?let me to tell more about this Super star China Town.

MAD - Superstar, Venice Biennale 2008 (Copyright MAD) (click-to-enlarge)
The architects describe the project as “MAD’s response to the redundant and increasingly out-of-date nature of the contemporary Chinatown”.

MAD - Superstar, Venice Biennale 2008 (Copyright MAD) (click-to-enlarge)

MAD - Superstar, Venice Biennale 2008 (Copyright MAD) (click-to-enlarge)
Moving around the world, the mobile town would produce all it’s own energy and recycle all its own waste, requiring no resources from its host city.

MAD - Superstar, Venice Biennale 2008 (Copyright MAD) (click-to-enlarge)
The town would be home to 15,000 people and include health resorts, sports facilities, drinking-water lakes and a digital cemetery.

MAD - Superstar, Venice Biennale 2008 (Copyright MAD) (click-to-enlarge)
more information from MAD:
MAD’S SUPERSTAR TO FEATURE AT 11th VENICE BIENNALE

A new project by MAD, ‘Superstar: A Mobile China Town’, will be featured in the exhibition ‘Eternal City’ at the 11th Venice Biennale, curated by Aaron Betsky. The exhibition invites 12 young global architects to suggest interventions into an anonymous suburban area of Rome, which will exploit and represent new spaces and urban fabrics of a Rome of the future. It will be shown in the Arsenale, from 14th September to 23rd November 2008.

MAD - Superstar, Venice Biennale 2008 (Copyright MAD) (click-to-enlarge)
MAD’s proposal, ‘The Superstar’, takes the form of a New China Town.

Along with shopping malls, petrol stations and branches of McDonalds, the old China Town renders all of our cities boring and alike. It is nothing more than restaurant streets and fake traditional buildings representing a kitsch image of contemporary China, with no real life inside. It is a historical theme park that poisons the urban space. There must be a shock therapy to remedy this situation.

MAD - Superstar, Venice Biennale 2008 (Copyright MAD) (click-to-enlarge)
Superstar: A Mobile China Town is MAD’s response to the redundant and increasingly out-of-date nature of the contemporary Chinatown. Rather than a sloppy patchwork of poor construction and nostalgia, the Superstar is a fully integrated, coherent, and above all modern upgrade of the 20th century Chinatown model. It’s a place to enjoy, to consume Chinese food, quality goods and cultural events; it’s a place to create and to produce, where citizens can use workshops to study, design and realize their ideas.

MAD - Superstar, Venice Biennale 2008 (Copyright MAD) (click-to-enlarge)
Equally important to what this neo-community contains is how it operates. Superstar: A Mobile China Town is a benevolent virus that releases unknown energy in between unprincipled changes and principled steadiness. It can land at every corner of the world, exchanging the new Chinese energy with the environment where it stays. It’s self-sustaining: it grows its own food, requires no resources from the host city, and recycles all of its waste. And it’s a living place, with authentic Chinese nature, health resorts, sports facilities and drinking water lakes. There’s even a digital cemetery, to remember the dead. The Superstar is a dream that’s home to 15,000 people: there is no hierarchy, no hyponymy, but a fusion of technology and nature, future and humanity.

MAD - Superstar, Venice Biennale 2008 (Copyright MAD) (click-to-enlarge)
The Superstar’s first destination will be the periphery of Rome. The Superstar will provide an unexpected, ever-changing future embedded in the Eternal past.

Watch a movie about the project here.

Science Library - Princeton University - Frank O.Gehry

The Science Library, located on a two acre site on the main campus, is envisioned as an efficient, easily accessible environment conducive to the research requirements of the Princeton University community in the 21st century.

In addition to providing classrooms, offices, and public space, the Science Library will house the Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences and Map/GIS print collections, and will provide facilities for the New Media Lab, the Educational Technology Center, and the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering.

The Science Library's mission to further the advancement of learning at Princeton University extends to the provision of a wide variety of electronic resources, including catalogs, indexes, reference tools, full text electronic books, electronic journals, numeric data, digital maps and images.
Primary exterior materials include stainless steel, brick, glass, and painted plaster.

Sketch Gehry Partners, LLP

The World's First Building in Motion

I want to introduce you this incredible idea,this is my interest,I like the strong connection between technology and Architecture.I put this from the main website.
The Dynamic Tower offers infinite design possibilities, as each floor rotates independently at different speeds, resulting in a unique and ever evolving shape that introduces a fourth dimension to architecture, Time.

The Dynamic Tower is environmentally friendly, with the ability to generate electricity for itself as well as other buildings nearby making it the first building designed to be self-powered, it achieves this feat with wind turbines fitted between each rotating floor. An 80-story building will have up to 79 wind turbines, making it a true green power plant.

The Dynamic Tower is also the first skyscraper to be built entirely from prefabricated parts that are custom made in a workshop, resulting of fast construction and of substantial cost savings . this approach known as the Fisher Method, also requires far less workers on construction site while each floor of the building can be completed in only seven days, units can also be customized according to the owners needs and styles.

Dr. Fisher states, “Today's life is dynamic, so the space we are living in should be dynamic as well, adjustable to our needs that change continuously, to our concept of design and to our mood, buildings will follow the rhythms of nature, they will change direction and shape from spring to summer, from sunrise to sunset, and adjust themselves to the weather, buildings will be alive.

“From now on, buildings will have four dimensions, the fourth dimension is ‘Time' to become part of architecture,” Dr. Fisher added. “Buildings in motion will shape the sky line of our cities.

By combining motion, green energy and efficient construction, the Dynamic Tower will change architecture as we know it, and will start a new era of Dynamic Living.

Take a look at more Pictures and Details.









Source:www.dynamicarchitecture.net