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Dabney B. on
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
Those are the first 2 lines of Tolkien’s famous book, The Hobbit. He imagined a race of little folk who carved their houses into the sides of hills to create comfortable, cozy little abodes. While living in burrows isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, it’s got an undeniable allure.
For us humans stuck on boring ol’ planet earth, there aren’t many places that will allow us to experience life as a Hobbit. The Mountain Magic Lodge, a quaint little hotel situated Chile (which I suppose is the earth version of the Shire), can give visitors a taste of Hobbit life.
Image: Fototelegraf
It’s got pretty much everything you could hope for: seclusion in a verdant forest, a suspended wooden bridge, cozy rooms, and even a bubbling waterfall at the top of the lodge that sends water trickling down over the sides of the structure. To top it all off, the lodge was built exclusively out of local wood and stone to make it as natural as possible.
Image: Fototelegraf
Spending a night at the Mountain Magic Lodge is a fantastic way to get in touch with nature. Living inside of this psuedo-underground structure, with the calming sounds of water dripping down the walls just outside of your windows, it would be impossible not to let go of your worries and let your stress melt away.
Image: Fototelegraf
In fact, the soothing effect of water is something of a theme at the Lodge. It was built near the Hulio Hulio falls, so guests can put on their hiking shoes and visit one of the world’s most beautiful cascades whenever they like. And when their legs are aching from a day of hiking and exploration, guests can fall into one of the hot tubs carved out of enormous tree trunks. What more could you possibly ask for?
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Dabney B. on
Monday, February 20th, 2012
In ancient times, the only way to reliably navigate large stretches of ocean was by harnessing the power of wind. Even as advances in technology allowed for motors and fossil fuels to speed up aquatic travel, sailboats were the only vessels that could travel indefinitely without ever running out of juice.
Now, thousands of years after harnessing wind energy, we’re finally able to trump the sailboat in sustainability of speed. The world’s largest solar powered boat, the Turanor PlanetSolar, is nearing the end of its maiden, record-breaking voyage. This Swiss-made vessel was built to promote green energy by circumnavigating the planet using sunlight as its only source of energy. The Turanor has been stopping in major cities along its route, from Hong Kong to Miami, using travel to promote its positive message.
Image: Flickriver
Launched on September 27th in 2010 from Morocco, the vessel (at the time of writing this article) has been on the sea for an astonishing 511 days. A Twitteresque feed of short updates on the Turanor’s main website keeps track of the vessel’s travels, catalogs the crew’s thoughts, and displays pictures from the trip.
The Turanor went southwest across the Atlantic to travel through the Panama Canal. From there, it made the daunting journey across the Pacific to the eastern shore of Australia, went northwest through the Philippines, and then along the Arabian Sea to its current port at Abu Dhabi.
Image: Lomocean
The vessel’s long journey is made possible by the hundreds of solar panels spaced across the deck of the ship, which allow the Turanor to hit a top speed of 14 knots (approximately 16 mph), but realistically its cruising speed is a mere 7 knots (8 mph). With the circumference of the earth close to 25,000 miles, that makes for a rather slow journey.
Still, the Turanor has managed to power on entirely through sun energy for all 511 days of its journey, so it has been slowly but surely accomplishing its mission.
Image: Gizmag
While the intended message of the Turanor is certainly admirable, the fact that this solar powered ship is nearing the end of its world-spanning journey comes with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s impressive that solar power has advanced to a point that we can use it to accomplish something so record-breaking. On the other hand, the crawling pace of the Turanor reminds many of just how limited solar power is. As nice as it would be to turn to solar power to answer the energy concerns of aquatic vessels and structures, it just might not be enough.
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Dabney B. on
Friday, February 17th, 2012
Let’s face it: dumpster diving isn’t for everybody. Most people dread taking out the trash every week, so forget about wading through several feet of other peoples’ leftovers. Though, you might actually be tempted to go dumpster diving if you put a much more literal spin on it. Well, don’t take it too literally. If you dive into these pools you’ll probably end up with a broken spine.
Image: Louisa Dawson
New York artist Louisa Dawson has created portable mini pools from refurbished dumpsters, allowing even priviledged suburban kids the chance to dumpster dive without their mothers suffering aneurysms. While these pools, which you can find at parks, beaches, and other public spaces, give people an opportunity to splash around a bit, that is clearly not the actual point of these art pieces.
Image: Louisa Dawson
At first glance, it’s easy to see that Louisa is making an obvious joke. Dumpster diving — I get it. When you actually step back and consider the pieces in a much wider context, though, you can see the deeper messages that the pieces are trying to get across. The rusty, disgusting exterior is a stark contrast to the clean blue tiles that line the center of the dumpster and the stainless steel ladder hanging over the edge. The exterior reminds viewers of the dumpsters’ origins, yet the children romping in the water are at odds with the destitute and disadvantaged people who typically need to sift through garbage.
Image: Louisa Dawson
It’s an effective message that toys with perceptions of social status by luring people to have a swim. This message is just as relevant in the world of aquatic architecture as it is for social equality. After all, aquatic architecture is inherently connected to green living, all while dredging up questions about the dynamic of public space and the ownership of lakes and seas.
In the past we’ve seen several aquatic projects focusing on recycled objects. While these projects are often quite successful, what is unfortunate about them is that they are typically popular by virtue of the fact that they are artistically unique and include a powerful message. It would be nice if we could reach a point when we use old shipping containers and dumpsters as building materials out of common practice and necessity rather than doing it because we want to make a trendy building with a charged political statement. Hopefully, architectural pieces such as Louisa’s dumpster pool can be accepted as commonplace, clever results of recycling instead of simply artistic pieces that encourage people to imagine such a reality as they go for a dip.
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Dabney B. on
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
Image: Yacht Island Design
Yesterday’s article proved that you don’t have to be near the Equator in order to enjoy the luxuries of a tropical paradise. Where there’s a will (along with several million dollars worth of funding and a team of ingenious designers), there’s a way. But alas, if only there were a way to create an artificial tropical paradise that didn’t require a giant blimp hangar big enough to hold the Eiffel Tower on its side.
Image: Yacht Island Design
Do I dare to dream? Could there really be a way to transport tropical luxury to just about anywhere on the planet? Well, actually, you might be able to bring the beauty of the Caribbeans to your own backyard, assuming of course that your backyard can dock a custom yacht. So throw on your boating shoes, and check out this floating tropical paradise.
Yacht Island Design is a company that specializes in indulging berjillionaires who have the compulsive urge to throw stupid amounts of money into the ocean for entertainment purposes. While the design company might take the concept of luxurious design to somewhat absurd extremes, that doesn’t make the yachts they dream up any less amazing.
Image: Yacht Island Design
This design, Tropical Island Paradise, brings a bit of equatorial fun to even the coldest climates. With the jungle-themed huts, palm, trees, and crystalline blue swimming pool, the deck of this yacht would look right at home on the coast of some tropical island. While the plants are a nice touch, I wonder if having those on deck is the best idea. After all, part of the appeal to this boat is that you can experience some tropical fun no matter where you are on earth. It’d be kind of a buzzkill to have every single one of your plants die whenever you go 30° north or south of the equator.
Image: Yacht Island Design
And as a cool as the boat is, it’s a bit, uhm — what’s the word? — tacky. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ve reviewed dozens of absurdly lavish hotels and floating bachelor pads before, so I’m certainly willing to acknowledge a good design when I see one. But this yacht design, while initially appealing, really starts to look less and less appropriate. I would love it if one of my friends had this boat, but if I ever become a billionaire, I think I’d want to go with something a bit more classy with my yacht, and not something that looks like it came from a theme park. But, hey, who am I to judge? Maybe Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Oprah love to compare their yachts to see which one has the best fake volcano.
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Dabney B. on
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
Malaysia is one of the luckier countries. Their entire nation is a tropical paradise so beautiful and relaxing that people fly by the thousands to their small country just to get a taste of what the Malaysians see every day. I could see how that would lead Malaysians to be a bit stuck up, thinking that everyone else would be jealous of their beautiful homeland. Evidently, that isn’t the case at all; the Malaysians are more interested in sharing their bounty with the rest of the world.
Image: Planning Pool
So when Germany found itself with an absurdly large, abandoned airplane hangar (the largest freestanding structure in the world), the Malaysian company Tanjong saw an opportunity. They purchased the hangar and all of the surrounding land to transform it into their unique version of a tropical German-Malaysian getaway.
Image: Web Ecoist
They brought in dump trucks of sands, hundreds of tropical plant varieties, and a bunch of the more iconic birds that you always associate with the jungle because of movies like Rio. After turning up the thermostat to a balmy 79° F, you’ve pretty much got the only tropical paradise replica in all of Europe. And to replicate bright Malaysian summer days as much as possible, they gave the steel ceiling dome of the structure a makeover, replacing the metal panels with glass so that natural sunlight would flood the building. They specifically chose glass that would let all UV light through to ensure that local plant life would remain healthy, so be sure to bring protection.
Image: Web Ecoist
But the Malaysians had to impress Das Germans, after all, the unofficial gods of ingenuity and engineering, so they’d need to do a lot better than piles of sand and a few parakeets to turn German heads. They also threw in a lagoon, a 9-story waterfall, water slides, and an enormous imitation balloon that lifts paying customers high into the sky. Altogether, that officially makes Tropical Islands Resort the world’s largest indoor waterpark.
Image: Web Ecoist
So, if you ever decide to visit Germany, be sure to bring a drinking buddy, pack your lederhosen, and don’t forget your swimsuit. You’ll have to stop by Tropical Islands Resort if you want to experience the only beach in all of Germany.
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Dabney B. on
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Image: Free-Slideshow
With water levels on the rise, mankind really needs to start looking at forms of aquatic architecture. If we ever do make the transition, we won’t have much trouble finding the real estate. After all, if it’s space that we’re looking for, the ocean has that in abundance. The tricky thing with aquatic living is that we need resources that currently only exist on land. We need farmland to grow crops, stable homes, and power. While we’re still trying to figure out how to replicate many of these demands on water, powering our theoretical future aquatic homes might not be as difficult as we imagined. In fact, turning to the ocean for power is such a great idea that it is an excellent alternative energy source even in today’s world.
Image: Guardian
Tidal power is a pretty simple concept, really. As with virtually other power plant, you need a source of energy to move or spin a turbine, which converts the energy into electricity. Tidal power plants either place turbines under the water where marine currents create constant energy, or they operate on the surface of the water, capitalizing on waves or tidal fluctuation to generate energy.
Image: Agrion
The brilliant thing about tidal power is that it’s all completely sustainable and green. As long as tides and waves continue to toss the ocean, tidal power generators will be able to generate enough power to light entire cities.
The United Kingdom, one of the world leaders in harnessing tidal energy, is continuing to explore tidal power alternatives. Just recently, Greg Barker, the UK’s Climate Change Minister, has announced that they will create the world’s first Marine Energy Park, which is expected to generate as much as 27 gigawatts of power by 2050. These figures are raising a few eyebrows as governments and electricity suppliers are taking note of the remarkable potential of tidal energy. It truly seems as through tidal power may be the solution to much of the world’s energy concerns; some experts even believe that Australia could power the entire country through tidal energy alone.
Image: Dailymail
More than likely, the steps that countries such as the UK and Australia are taking to develop tidal energy power plants will eventually emerge as the facilitating technology that allows mankind to start living on the ocean. When Waterworld starts to look more like a documentary and less like science fiction, tidal power generators will help us thrive in this new environment.
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Dabney B. on
Friday, February 10th, 2012
Image: Arch Daily
Those familiar with Chicago know that its famous Navy Pier is a true cultural landmark. The Pier regularly attracts families on the weekends, is the staging ground for community events, and is a great place to just take a nice evening stroll and enjoy the cool breeze coming off Lake Michigan. Despite the popularity of the pier, city officials are looking to give the nearly 100-year-old landmark a facelift. To that end, they have proposed PierESCAPE, a group of dock-like extensions that will enhance the Navy Pier.
Image: Arch Daily
The city invited designers from around the world to submit ideas for their pier. The design firm Aedas won the competition and will be leading the construction of the pier.
Aedas’ design is a subtle one, as it attempts to revitalize the area while paying homage to the area’s historical context. It integrates many of the pier’s most famous buildings instead of tearing them down, and adds dock-like extensions to make room for newer, more modern regions. Best of all, Aedas intends to do all of this while striving to keep Lake Michigan clean. The project will be fairly green with parks, lines of trees, and floating gardens along the pier that will both beautify and improve the ecological health of the coastal region.
Image: Arch Daily
One of the most charming features of the design is the series of what can only be described as “street lamps” that line the pier. Rather than following the traditional design of a bulb at the end of a pole, these lamps use lines of tubes of light to loosely mimic Chicago’s iconic skyline. So, even as Aedas will be adding, changing, and redesigning the Navy Pier into a much more modernized version, the pier will not lose its inherent Chicago-ness. I would have to say that Aedas’ deft touch was much more appropriate than taking a wrecking ball to the whole place to make room for shopping centers and restaurant chains.
Image: Arch Daily
Once completed, it looks as though Navy Pier version 2.0 will continue to be a vibrant and publicly adored feature of the city.
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Dabney B. on
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
If roller coasters and swimming pools had a child, it’d probably look something like a water slide. These aquatic rides are favorites for vacationers looking to beat the heat, and they’ve got plenty of different types to accommodate all kinds of swimmers. From thrilling water chutes to lazy pool rides, you can pretty easily match your personality to the best slide for you. But what about those extreme thrill seekers out there who want something more than your average water slide? These are the 5 top, most insane water slides on the planet.
Image: About.com
5. Bazooka Bowls – Irvine, California
This ride is your run-of-the-mill water slide except for the bowls at the bottom. When riders enter the bowl, centrifugal force whips them around the sides of the bowl before ingloriously dumping them into a pool, a bit like the rider’s being flushed down an oversized toilet.
4. Leap of Faith – Paradise Island, Bahamas
Similar to thisVegas swimming pool, the Leap of Faith ride sends riders plummeting down a replica Mayan pyramid and straight through a shark tank. The thin, transparent walls of the tube are the only thing separating the sharks from what they consider “fast food.”
3. The Wildebeest – Santa Claus, India
The worst thing about dealing with water slides is the long wait just to get to your turn. You feel like you have to put on sports shoes just to be able to scale to the top of the massive tower, and then you stand around for 30 minutes just for 15 seconds of thrills. For India’s Wildebeest ride, the experience should be well worth all the effort. I’ve been to a few water parks in my life, but I don’t think I’ve ever been on a water slide that lasts half as long as this one does.
2. Summit Plummet – Orlando, Florida
People who ride the Summit Plummethave to be seriously committed, because riders have to ascend 12 stories to reach this gigantic water slide. Expect to hit interstate speeds (50-60 mph) as your careen down this 360 foot chute.
1. AquaLOOP – Morvci, Slovenia
Water slides are basically just wetter, less crazy roller coasters. We expect plenty of twists and turns in your typical water slide, but nothing too elaborate. Evidently, Slovenians demand a higher caliber of terrifying thrill with their amusement parks. Get this: to start the ride, you have to stand on top of a trapdoor, which falls open to send you plummeting down the water chute. Then, just because Slovenians are hardcore like that, you go through a full roller coaster-esque loop. Don’t be surprised if the water carrying you down the tunnel is intermixed with urine after that mortifying ride.
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Dabney B. on
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
Image: Sub-Find
I’m anxiously awaiting the day when technology and our worldwide green infrastructure advances enough to the point that we can all go shopping for our next floating home. Of course, that’s more of a theoretical excitement that I’m feeling rather than any genuine giddiness, as the world could make the transition to aquatic living tomorrow and I still wouldn’t be able to make the down payment on a floating house. Hopefully, the future will include floating apartments for folks like me.
The closest thing I’ve ever seen to a family-sized floating housing unit is the Trilobis 65 design, created by Giancarlo Zema. Basically, Trilobis is an enormous transparent dome big enough to host a family of six, but wrapped in a boat-like oval so that it’s more than just a giant floating hamster wheel.
Image: Sub-Find
To maximize space efficiency, there are 4 levels within this 20-meter-long boat, giving each inhabitant comfortable (albeit cozy) living conditions. A spiral staircase links all of the floors together through the center.
Perhaps the coolest feature of the floating domicile is the basement level, which consists of a tranquil, underwater viewing area. While I do adore the idea of an underwater living space, I think that the way Zema designed that particular floor is atrocious. With back-to-back chairs facing the outside ocean, having a conversation with your fellow nautical roommates would be awkward. In my personal opinion, I think it would have been much smarter to place the chairs along the rim and face the center of the vessel so that inhabitants could chat with each other while enjoying the aquatic background.
Image: Sub-Find
When the Trilobis inhabitants become inevitably starved for human contact, they can dock in these barges that perfectly lock into the U-shape on the back of the boathouse. These barges would act as a kind of community center for Trilobis fleets. It was clever of Zema to address this subtle but pressing issue facing aquatic living. It is essentially impossible to find meaningful human contact and entertainment beyond what you’ve brought with you on your boat, so if you don’t like your mates then you’re in for a rough trip.
When designing aquatic living spaces like the Trilobis 65, it is essential to incorporate elements that facilitate and encourage community interaction with other seafarers. For all of our efforts to go green and utilize this aquatic real estate, this hypothetical exodus to the ocean will fail if it does not account for our basic human drives and needs. As it stands, the Trilobis 65 can be nothing more than an elaborate vacation home. Until we get to the point that aquatic communities can thrive just as easily as terrestrial communities, I’m afraid that we’re going to be stuck with dirt and grass for the rest of our species’ existence.
Jeez, how many ice hotels does Canada have, anyway? It’s not like they ran out of wood or anything. I found the first Canadian ice hotel to be charming and unique, but maybe they’re as common as gas stations up in the land of ice, snow, and hockey.
So, what differentiates Quebec’s Hotel de Glace (French for Hotel of Ice) from Montreal’s snow village? After all, you know what they say about ice hotels: You’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all. No? Well, that might be because that isn’t a real phrase, but the basic idea might still apply.
Image: Inhabitat
Right off the bat, these two hotels do share quite a few similarities, besides the obvious relationship of both being made out of ice blocks. Hotel de Glace includes an impressive array of custom ice sculptures and frozen furniture. It’s hard to comment much past that, as every ice bed looks just an uncomfortable as the last. The same goes for the ice bar, an ice living room, ice dining tables, and ice everything else, really. Look around: this place is quite beautiful, but I wouldn’t exactly call it cozy.
The aesthetic of Hotel de Glace is actually rather distinct from the Snow Village. The Snow Village has a bit more of a shadowy ambiance with colors focused on cool blues and shadows, a bit like a glacier around dusk set alight by the aurora borealis. Hotel de Glace, however, seems to be a bit more willing to play with the bright and pristine colors of winters with stark white rooms, crystalline designs, and playful wall carvings.
Image: Inhabitat
Overall, the Snow Village gives a sort of “It’s cold outside (and inside too, but that’s besides the point), so let’s stay inside and cuddle, my love,” feeling, while Hotel de Glace has more of a “Look! A whole hotel made of ice! Let’s go play!” type of vibe. Perhaps I’m just splitting hairs, but when you walk into a place that has an ice telephone and an ice lamp on a frozen reception desk, you can tell right off the bat that Hotel de Glace is a bit tongue-in-cheek. They’ve even got an ice slide for the kids (and the adults when nobody is looking) set in the same room as massive ice chandelier. It’s almost like a Disney World hotel — an adventure for the kids, but plenty of fun stuff for adults, too. Just be sure to pack warm clothes!
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