Wealthy South American businessman Pedro Ibañez built this lodge in 1998, offering guests refined luxury in the middle of the rugged-adventure land the Inca once called home. Set in a 700-mile-long desert amid six soaring volcanoes, the mile-and-a-half-high town of San Pedro de Atacama is close to the driest place on earth.
It doesn’t get much more sleek and chic than the -5° Supperclub in Pattaya, Thailand, where guests enjoy food and drinks while they lounge on beds of pure white in a room of ever changing colours. If the Supperclub isn’t cool enough for you, there’s also the -5° Icebar which is kept at minus 5 degrees and drinks are served in glasses made of ice.
Masterpiece of metabolist architecture and the original “capsule building” the Nakagin Towers in Tokyo, Japan sure are a treat to the eyes. The building follows the axioms of Metabolist philosophy spearheaded by Kisho Kurokawa. It consists of two separate towers which serve as support to 140 prefabricated capsules. Each capsule is one self-contained tiny apartment. Original idea postulated that capsules could be eventually replaced by newer models, keeping living standards in the building constantly up to date. The original target demographic were bachelor salarymen. The capsules were fully furnished in up to the minute fashion, including such amenities as a kitchen stove, a refrigerator, a television set, and a reel-to-reel tape deck.
It’s hard to believe that fallingwater was built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1934, to me it demonstrates how dull many house designs still are today and how influential the pioneers of ‘modern’ design were, nothing beats an incredible piece of architecture in a beautiful setting, even if it’s beginning to collapse…
Habitat 67 is a housing complex and landmark located on the Marc-Drouin Quay on the Saint Lawrence River at 2600, Pierre Dupuy Avenue in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its design was created by architect Moshe Safdie based on his master’s thesis at McGill University and built as part of Expo 67.
200 Hundred miles inland from japan, near the town of Karuizawa, stands the TNA designed Ring House, it’s was built as an exclusive retreat in a previously unremarkable plot of sloping land near the Owner’s Hill workers resort, it is constructed of strong glass and wooded rings which alternate allowing 360 degree views from inside the building, and allowing the structure to blend into the forest from the outside. Each of the rings is a specific height to hide or reveal areas of space within depending on their utility. The dark light sucking forest around and below the ring house, coupled with the cleared slope leading to the road fill the house with light, contrasting with the forest around it giving it it’s ethereal aesthetic.
The Abandoned Pod City of San Zhi was commissioned by the Taiwanese government and several local firms. It was an attempt at a luxurious vacation resort for those travelling from Taipei. It was even going to include an amusement park. The project was abandoned with out ever being completed. The architect is unnamed and speculation about why the site was abandoned varies, with the most interesting being that a series of fatal accidents occurred during construction, causing locals to believe the site was haunted but a slightly more mundane reason listed for the abandonment was the developer running out of money.
Roden Crater is a natural cinder volcano situated on the southwestern edge of the Painted Desert in northern Arizona. Since 1972, with grants from Dia Art Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, James Turrell is turning this natural geographic formation into a monumental environmental artwork. He has designed a series of chambers and observation platforms in the crater, in line with the sun, moon, stars, and planets, inspired by ancient sites like Stonehenge and Egyptian temples.
The Banpo Bridge (반포대교) has become the world’s longest water fountain bridge with the installation of 20,000 nozzles along its 600-meter span. Every minute, some 60 tons of water are released along with music and light. Several shows occur daily.
Photographer Todd Selby’s web-based project, The Selby, showcases photos of people – whom you may or may not recognize – in their homes with their stuff. Scrolling through the site is voyeuristic, compelling, and a refreshing departure from the perfect interiors perpetuated by home magazines.