Fearing the future? The Apocalypse of 2012? End of the World? Or maybe just down-right paranoid?

This “safe house” design by KWK Promes is a home for the anyone who wants ultimate security and perhaps needs to see someone to talk about their issues.

Regardless of the reason for the design, the fact that such a building exists is an architectural feat worth mentioning. It’s clean, modernistic and minimalistic exterior, flush with ample open space created by 70% of the the building having windows would be a beautiful country home for anyone who could afford it.

Below you will see, what appears to be protruding wall additions that are “just part of the home design. Instead, these are massive slabs of reinforced concrete mechanically attached to the walls for… wait for it…  lock down.

Massive steel shutters are used to cover the front entrance of the home.

A drawbridge? Now we have seen it all. If you don’t want your mother in-law coming in, this house is for you.

So, if it is the end of the world and all looks grim. Just set your GPS coordinates to this home and here you will find planet earth making its last stand against the heaviest of all enemy forces.

That being said, this structure is amazing.

Moving homes like these are equipped with home cinemas, full scale kitchen, multiple bedrooms and bathroom and some even have a swimming pool (lookout for the pot-holes!)

The cost of a moving home can be anywhere from £150,000 to £1000,000.

Featured “masterpiece”: Hope you don’t get Termites!

Client: ” We would like to have a 2 metre extension to our 3rd storey apartment. Is it possible?”

Architect: “Yes of course! I will give you a good price if you give me the job”.

And some others…

Archipod attempts to reinvent the concept of a traditional home office by bringing modern workspace and a peaceful working environment straight to your backyard. Each garden office comes with an ergonomic semicircular computer desk, concealed background mood lighting, electric heater, smoke alarm, data ports and electrical outlets. The design is trendy, eco-compliant and would be a major point of discussion at barbecues and garden parties.

1. Manchester Civil Justice Centre (Manchester, UK)

2. Container City (London, UK)

3. Gherkin Building (London, UK)

4. Lloyd’s building (London, UK)

5. London City Hall (London, UK)

6. Millennim Dome (London, UK)

7. New Office Building (London, UK)

8. The Empress State Tower (London, UK)

9. The Glynne Arms (West Midlands, UK)

10. Thin House (London, UK)

These images show the futuristic building plans for the Museum of Middle East Modern Art to be located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The project is being lead by UN Studio, an architecture company in the Netherlands. Like many other projects in Dubai, this cultural building is defining new modern design ideas in a city that is investing in its future. The museum will be located in Culture Village near the banks of Dubai Creek (Khor Dubai). With the blossoming wealth of the region one can only hope that its collection will rival that of other modern art museums around the world.

Source: http://www.furniturestoreblog.com/2009/10/05/futuristic_building_plans_modern_art_museum_in_dubai_uae.html

“I have been living in a cave for five years and I wouldn’t live anywhere else! My cool cave can be found in the beautiful village of Galera in the Granada Province of Spain.” Says Les Edwards, a niche real estate business owner.

I can almost guess what is going through your mind as you read this – he lives in a dark, damp, dirty hole in the ground so why tell the world about it! Well, his one of a kind rural property in Spain is a cave house, it has three bedrooms, is comfortable and very modern in all but appearance – similar to a whitewashed country cottage.

Just to show you how modern a cave house can be, Les has satellite TV, satellite internet, telephone, mains electric, mains water and mains sewerage. The rooms are dry, many have large windows to let in natural daylight and, importantly, in this extreme climate of hot dry summers and cold mid-winter nights the cave home keeps an even temperature all year round thanks to it’s natural geothermal heating for the winter and cooling for the summer.

Because his cave house is built into the west side of a hill he has the most spectacular views stretching many miles to the Sagra Mountains and for three hundred days of the year he watches the sunrise as he eats his breakfast.

Cave houses in some parts of Spain have been home to man for thousands of years. Their popularity has risen and fallen as the centuries passed, today demand is soaring. Many people, both Spanish and other nationalities, are looking for a different lifestyle and homes that are affordable and eco-friendly and with modern technology and a good architect you can turn a cave into the perfect home.

Most modernised cave homes consist of two parts, the part that is cave and built underground with conventional rooms built onto the front. In this way you get the best of both worlds. So cave houses have light, airy living rooms to the front and cooler cave bedrooms to the back. Almost everyone loves to sleep in the cave rooms, they are quiet, fresh, dark and natural. Many people state that their cave bedrooms have a calming effect, connecting with inherited memories from our earliest creation. This sense of tranquillity induces a deeper sleep resulting in improvements in both physical and mental health.

Cave houses have a number of distinct advantages compared to conventionally built houses:

1. A cave house is significantly cheaper. Cave houses are 20 to40% cheaper than an equivalent conventional property. As examples, it is still possible to buy a three bedroom cave house, fully modernised for under 100,000€ and four bedrooms for 115,000€.
2. Each cave home is uniquely in its design. Almost all the modernised cave homes have been rebuild from much older dwellings, originally hewn out by hand one or two hundred years ago, as a result no two caves homes are alike. There is no danger of ending up with a home exactly like that of your neighbours.
3. Because the cave rooms are sunk into the rock they maintain roughly the same temperature summer and winter, between 13 and 18°C. There is absolutely no need for air conditioning in the summer and winter heating requirements are significantly lower than in conventionally built houses. As a result power consumption and costs are much lower.
4. Recently renovated cave houses can come with double block cavity insulated external wall, double glazed windows and extra roof insulation making them beautifully cool in the summer and cosily warm on those winter nights, providing additional comfort and economy.
5. They have a quaintness and charm rarely found in so called “modern properties”, yet they have all the facilities you expect from a new home. Electricity, mains water, mains sewerage, telephone, satellite TV and broadband Internet are all available enabling you to have the best of both worlds.
6. Low maintenance is another benefit. With few external walls and often no roof to worry about, maintenance costs can be kept to a minimum.

Les states he can easily sleep at night, close to nature and knowing his eco-home didn’t cost the earth.

It is chairs, this time! We take a look at some of the most creatively recycled chairs out there. There is no argument that some of these may not be the most comfortable ones to sit on, but there is also no denying the genius of their designers in thinking of new ways to add function to these objects. These images are proof that you dont have to follow the rules to be an architect or designer!

First up, a chair made from gun shells! You never really know when they would come in handy!

Alexander Reh was dead serious when he said he would make a chair out of gun shells. The ‘Fully Loaded’ chair contains 450 .12 gauge shotgun shells, and are allegedly comfortable.

You have seen the gunshells. How about guns?

Spoons. Now you know what to do with those unwanted hard to recycle cutlery.

by Osian Batyka-Williams

And if you happen to have those old wooden playbricks that you used to play with when you were a kid, how about shaping that into a chair?

by Pepe Heykoop[Via]

If you thought the last 2 may not be comfortable to sit on, how about the Pencil Chair? Ouch!

The meltdown chair: No, it’s not the financial one, but we are talking about plumbing tubes. This chair by Tom Price is made by heating and fusing together common plumbing tubes.

Tom Price has apparently got more up his sleeve.

Chair made from clothes

Chair made from crumpled polypropylene sheets

Chair made from PVC hose

Chair made from rope

Curious how Tom makes these chairs? Check this video out on how he made the above chair:

video

The screw chair by Revol Design made from scraps of douglas fir and 3,726 drywall screws.

Tube Chair made from steel scrap.

We are just getting started. People have tried to make chairs from whatever stuff they normally throw away including old CDs…

by Belen Hermosa

wine corks…

…old bottles…

…cardboard…

…waste plastic..

…old skis…

…street signs…

by Boris Bally

…old bathtubs…

…aluminium can tabs…

by Designer Carlos Alberto Montana Hoyos

…plastic bags…

by Ryan Frank

…bicycle tires…

…soda cans(pretty good,no?)…

…and even beer cans.

From Powerhouse Company, the Spiral House comes with a creative architecture plan and an home extension in the shape of a spiral. The unusual exterior makes the place very inviting and it made us eager to search for more. Below you have a bunch of pictures that can best describe this residence. We hope you will let yourself be inspired by them. But before you start your exploration, here are a few words from the company describing this project: ” The extension is designed as a spiral connecting the more public to the more private rooms of the house. This spiral creates an intimate patio, a sloping roof garden. It not only extends the house, it also extends the family’s way of life, creating a continuous ‘loop’ for living”.
A really nice architect job!

According to standard orthodox Egyptology the pyramid complex on the Giza plateau are funerary structures of the three Pharaohs from the fourth dynasty approximately 2575 – 2465 BC. The Great Pyramid is attributed erroneously to Khufu (Cheops) – with the other two being those of Khafre (Chephren) and Menkaura (Mycerinus).

Author Miroslav Verner writing in The Pyramids stated:

“To suppose that the pyramid’s only function in ancient Egypt was as a royal tomb would be an oversimplification.”

This is now more true than ever and I am of the opinion that if the pyramids, or more specifically the Great pyramid, was built solely for burial purposes of the given King (Khufu/Cheops) then it was and will remain an unprecedented farce. It is simply unimaginable that so much effort be placed into building an architectural structure of such gargantuan proportions, with such amazing astronomical alignments, with such perfect precision, by thousands of human souls, all for the one purpose of burying their God-King.

Statue of king Khufu

In all the pyramids in Egypt, not one has delivered the full body of a Pharaoh. There have been parts – a supposed mummified foot at Djoser; fragments of a mummy in the pyramid of Unas and Pepi; an arm and shoulder at Teti and a skeleton of a young woman in the coffer of the pyramid of Menkaure. But never a full mummified body of a pharaoh that was supposed to be buried within. The Egyptologists claim that this was due to the tombs having been raided over the vast period of time. This may be true, but alternatively it may be that pyramids were used for other purposes as well, or instead of. These body parts discovered within the pyramids may be pharaonic remains, but they could just as easily be more modern burials, placed within the pyramids at a later date. A similar thing is found in the burial mounds of Europe and elsewhere. Here, the burial mounds, as sacred images of the primordial mound, womb of the mother earth or world mountain were Gateways to the Otherworld and for centuries progressive generations would cut into them and make fresh burials. This did not take away the purpose or meaning of the mounds as Gateways. In fact this use utilised the main purpose.

Were these great feats of human ingenuity and skill just for the purpose of encasing the carcass of one man? If they were built for just one man then why did Amenemhet III have two pyramids built, one at Dashur, which contained his granite coffer and one at Hawara with a quartzite coffer? It is claimed that one of these was a cenotaph, which comes from the Greek kenotaphion, meaning “empty tomb”. Of course, this is even more remarkable, that a tomb should be built empty, and the reason given by Egyptologists is simply that it would confuse the “tomb raiders”. So thieves were stupid then?

The only so-called evidence that the Great Pyramid was built for Khufu is scant to say the least. Herodotus, the infamous Roman historian visited the pyramids in 443 BC and claimed that Khufu was buried underneath the pyramid, not in it. This was two thousand years after the supposed event. We simply cannot trust what we read today in our newspapers, let alone believe Herodotus and his interpretation of what he was lead to believe.

The next piece of “evidence” is extremely controversial as it relies upon some difficult to see, let alone decipher “inscriptions” on a funerary complex near the Great Pyramid claiming to be “in the time of Khufu.” Again, and lastly, in the pyramid itself the hieroglyphic symbol for Khufu himself as a quarry mark was discovered by archaeologist Richard Howard-Vyse who is now believed to have forged it under pressure of competition from contemporary foreign archaeologists – namely the Italian Caviglia.

So, we are left with an inscription “near” the pyramid, a fake hieroglyph and a two and a half thousand year old text based upon hearsay. This is hardly evidence for it to be the burial place of Khufu, let alone for anything else, although it is perfectly possible that Khufu was buried at this “special” place where later or earlier a pyramid was constructed. The pyramid however remains an enigma; regardless of what we are led to believe.

This unproven nonsense has pervaded Egyptology ever since, regardless of any other reason for the existence of the pyramids.

Now there is another reason.

The Great pyramid of Giza is to be found arguably at the centre of the earth’s landmass (30 degrees north, 31 degrees east) – both north-south and east-west. It is in the perfect location – at the centre – for collecting the “earth energy” as Tesla proved with his experiments on resonance as we shall see, it is also the perfect shape and size. To add to this, the two materials used were also perfect, as I shall explain. But first we need to take a foray into the world of Tesla.

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was an eccentric and brilliant inventor who managed to harness the alternating current we use today as well as radio, florescent lighting and much more. Tesla believed he could send waves of electricity directly to our homes through the earth and/or ether without the use of wires and without harming anybody along the way by simply applying a subtle push-pull resonator. In 1901 Tesla said “my next step was to use the earth itself as the medium for conducting the currents…” and he did.

Tesla successfully sent electricity 26 miles and extracted it using a “magnifying receiver”. This is an incredible thought that energy waves, even extremely low frequency waves, could be sent around the globe and then with a magnifying receiver they could be picked up and understood or used. In fact Tesla even “tuned” in his pyramid shaped magnifying transmitter to the resonance of the earth and found that his co-workers were becoming ill with symptoms of “extreme tension of the nerves.”

Nikola tesla during one of his experiments

Tesla discovered that “The Earth was found to be literally alive with electrical vibrations, and soon I was deeply absorbed in this interesting investigation.” Tesla continued and revealed his feelings; “My first observations positively terrified me, as there was present in them something mysterious, not to say supernatural.”

“It was some time afterward when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to an intelligent control.”

It would be many years later that Schumann would discover the resonance of the earth and prove that it had its own wave-particle pattern and that it can be altered by the surrounding universe and any number of other external influences. How does it do this? The chaotic beginnings of the big bang are still very much in the realms of theory and there is another theory, which goes that the universe is a standing wave being pushed and pulled by some impulse. This impulse pushes and pulls the standing wave, which then does the same to its neighbour and hey presto light can travel across the universe as a wave cascade, without loss of energy – a perpetual motion.

Tesla had discovered “intelligent” signals by pure accident and stated the case. Unfortunately through circumstances outside of his own control he never did get around to seriously working on the phenomena and nobody since him has had the intelligence or will to see the issue through. What Tesla discovered however was found within the ELF (electro-magnetic frequency) field, the low frequency band widths. Many people are out there, not least of whom are SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) looking on the megahertz level, when they should be redirecting their search back down to earth and to the extremely low frequency, before the mobile phone masts completely engulf us.

What struck me though was, Tesla’s receivers were great towers with pyramids on top and Tesla’s insistence that to be at the centre of the land mass (dependent upon where you are) would be far more beneficial to the purpose of the machinery.

So, Tesla discovered the resonance of the earth and that this resonance had intelligent or supernatural attributes. The resonance of the earth is in the same 0-40 Hz as the human “mind”, the same mind, which is constantly emitting signals into the environment around it. These signals are much more than just waves, they are also particles – they are therefore “matter”.

We see stars in the sky, little lights flickering billions of light years away. Many of these lights are no longer there; they are stars that have died, and yet we still see the light. This light, we now know to be wave-matter-particle; we know it is the continued life of that star. We ourselves, as part and parcel of the whole universal constants and laws of chaos and order, are nothing different to those stars. We are also putting out signals, which will continue as wave-matter-particles, even after we have died.

Amazingly Tesla described these electromagnetic signals as stationery parallel circles forming on the surface of the earth. These are no different to the circles mankind has been perceiving and materialising here on the earth for thousands of years, as stone circles, rock art and all manner of mysterious artefacts. And where would the most powerful, collective electromagnetic current collect other than at the centre of the landmass. As the great and mystical saying Om turns from a circle into a square as it reaches “mmm”, so too this great collection of human thought and quantum emotion turns into a square base at the great pyramid in Giza.

So, the Great Pyramid, at the centre of the earth’s landmass and as a perfect shape for receiving the resonance of the earth, simply must have a better reason for existing than as a large coffin for one man.

Lets break it all down and move through the various elements one piece at a time.

The base of the pyramid

The Great pyramid at Giza

Made up of mainly solid mass with the interior spaces being the Descending and Ascending passages, the Grand Gallery, a subterranean chamber, another chamber unnamed and the King and Queens chambers. The King’s chamber (so named by Arabs who attempted to raid the tomb, but found it empty) is 10.46 meters east to west; 5.23 meters north to south and 5.81 meters high. This is an architectural 3 dimensional representation of the Golden Mean or Phi – a sacred geometry well before Pythagorus.

The sides of the Great Pyramid line up almost exactly with the cardinal points (NWSE) on the compass, with an accuracy that would defy today’s builders, leaving a fifth point on top. The dimensions of the earth’s size and shape can be calculated using the dimensions of the pyramid, it being a scale model of the hemisphere with information on the latitude and longitude of the earth. Adding to this the element of the earth’s pre-historic tilt of very approximately 22-25 degrees being built into the whole structure, then we have a truly powerful mathematical building.

The very foundations of the pyramid also defy modern building techniques as it rests perfectly level with not one corner of the base more than 13mm higher or lower than the others. When we remember that the base covers 13 acres we can suddenly understand just how this was an incredible feat of human engineering.

The King’s chamber is made of solid red granite transported from the quarries of Aswan six hundred miles away.

The kings chamber

In the chamber itself there is a coffer, thought by Egyptologists to be the remains of Khufu’s sarcophagus. Nothing was ever found in the coffer, neither was there a lid. It is too big to take out of the corridor leading to and from it – indicating that it must have been laid inside as the building was erected around it, which is opposite to the funerary custom of the period. There is not the slightest piece of evidence to suggest that Khufu be ever laid to rest in this 3 ton granite container. There is nothing, not even any funerary implements or embalming materials, not a scrap. And yet, short of any other ideas, the orthodox situation remains that a building with 2.3 million blocks, weighing between 2.5 and 50 tons each, of perfect size and orientation was built for one man to be buried within. To add to this not one of the fourth dynasty Pharaohs put their names upon the pyramids supposedly built for them, whereas from the fifth dynasty onwards official inscriptions are in their thousands. No wonder I am constantly told by academics that they don’t believe the pyramid was a tomb!

So what is the truth of the Great Pyramid? Well, firstly I decided that I should run through some of the theories that have been put forward and some of the more esoteric beliefs, which related to my own quest.

There are legends and traditions that claim the King’s chamber to be a place of initiation. I would in part go along with this theory, especially in relation to the rituals required or made surrounding the Gateway mythology. There are also many stories of individuals who have felt peculiar presence’s or had mystical experiences within the chamber. There is also the tradition that Napoleon himself actually refused to express what happened to him in that enigmatic place, saying, “You would not believe me if I told you”.

According to these modern popular folk tales the coffer itself is the centre of the process or “energy vortex.” Writer C. Dunn in his book The Giza Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient Egypt (Bear & Co, Santa Fe) goes so far as to say that the Great pyramid was a huge geomechanical power plant that responds to the earth’s vibrations or resonance and transforms it into energy. Dunn conjectured that the geometric and physical design of the chamber inside the pyramid turned it into a large transducer and has produced a highly scientific analysis of the subject. So there is now scientific experimentation behind these folk tales – but with a very different purpose.

The passageways inside the great pyramid

The main tunnel leading up to the kings chamber

On the medical and scientific side there are stories of amazing healing and sharpened razors. In the 1920’s Antoine Bovis discovered that the heat and humidity of the King’s chamber reduced the decay rate of dead animals – something denied by orthodoxy still today. Bovis went on to construct a small-scale pyramid and oriented it in the same fashion. He placed a dead cat inside and found the result to be the same. Following this in the 1960’s US and Czech researchers repeated the process and achieved the same results.

In the ancient Egyptian language of Khemitian (black people or people from the black) the pyramid was known as Per-Neter, which can be translated in two ways – House of Nature, or more importantly the House of Energy, remarkably like “pyramid”, which means Fire in the Middle. It is interesting of course to note that Nature and Energy are interchangeable in this way, indicating that the Khemitians truly saw the energy as from nature itself (herself). Not to mention that the word Neter (NTR) also means neutral, which is the position one supposedly has to be in to gain entry into the Otherworld – i.e. between the gates. Another title of course for the Giza area is Rostau, which means Gateway and is sacred to Osiris and his progenitor Sokar, the God of the Underworld. In the Book of Am-Duat, Sokar inhabits a place of the dead that even Ra, the sun god cannot access – this is therefore a place of darkness or black. Sokar can also be seen in the representations of the fourth and fifth hours of the Duat, standing upon his mound within what seems to be a hill topped by a black conical symbol of some sort. Incidentally and perfectly related, the only way that Ra can traverse this mystical realm is by taking the form of the snake!

The sun god Ra

According to Reginald Aubrey Fessenden – author of The Deluged Civilisation of the Caucasus Isthmus (1927) – The term ‘Rostau’ is again a literal translation of E-kur or Akur – meaning the “great mountain” or “great house.”
Ak is the first half and comes from Akh, which is “one of the five elements forming the human being seen as an aspect of the sun, the link between the human and the luminous life force. It left the body at death to join the circumpolar stars.” Ur is the second half and means city. And so, the location of Akur, where the pyramids are situated means simply the city where the dead leave the body to join the stars. Add this to Rostau, meaning gateway and we truly do have the Stargate.

Writer Zecharia Sitchin tells us that the Sumerians also called their Ziggurat temple in Nippur – (a truncated, stepped-pyramid) – Ekur, a “house which is like a mountain” – but quotes a poem which exalts the goddess Ninkharsag as the mistress of the “House with a Pointed Peak” – a perfect pyramid. This is interesting in that the Sumerian goddess Ninkharsag is synonymous with the Egyptian Goddess Isis. The Inventory Stele – said to have been written by Khufu – states that the monument (Great Pyramid) was dedicated to Isis.

It’s possible then that Akur and Akhu both come from the same root words, as does the name Aker, which, according to the studies made by Egyptologists, is also connected with the Sphinx – being the “guardian of the entrance of the Underworld.”

The Akhu or ‘Shining Ones’ – variously named ‘Ancestors,’ ‘Sages,’ ‘Ghosts’ or ‘Spirits,’ can also mean ‘Astral spirits’ as associated with the stars.

As for the serpent link, there are many ancient Egyptian illustrations showing human figures on the backs of ‘feathered serpents’ about to ascend to the stars.

So, why would all three meanings of the Giza area and pyramid, and the myths, relate to both a gateway and to illumination? And why would the people associated with this area be deemed to be special “bright” or “shining” people if not for their seeming ability to access the illumination and hence go through the Rostau or Gateway.

The truth of the Great Pyramid from its history, folklore, legend and language is that the ancient Egyptians saw it as the portal to another world. Not a world of aliens or a parallel universe, but as the perfect ancient machine to enable and to even magnify an internal altered state of consciousness. For thousands of years the tribal shaman would be the guide to the life-after and bring back fortune. He would access caves, holes in the ground and eventually man-made mounds such as Newgrange in Ireland. Over time the shaman became priest, leader, king and pharaoh. He alone could contact the gods and the pyramid is the ultimate extension of this very humanly evolved process.

But this is just the beginning of an amazing tale that will lead us into a world of wonder. For there is something much more amazing about a world full of gateways to the otherworlds…..

Source: ezinearticles.com

Some of the ideas featured below are a bit far-fetched and exist only in visualizers dreams, some maybe in the making and some of the buildings may already exist now.

1. Lilypad Island

This may fall in the first category we mentioned above, but the sheer audacity in dreaming up such a project needs to be applauded. Architects like Vincent Callebaut really push imagination and creativity.

According to 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). Award-winning Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut visions Lilypad as a permanent refuge for those whose homes have been submerged in water due to ocean rise caused due to global warming.

The ‘Lilypad City’ can house 50,000 inhabitants and would float around the world as an independent and fully self-sutainable luxurious super home. With lakes, artificial mountains for scenery, solar panels, wind tunnels and powerstations to harness wave energy, and no roads and no cars, Lilypad looks one clean green mega city.

2. Dynamic Architecture – Rotating Tower

Bored with seeing the same scenery everytime you look out of the window? Check out the Rotating Tower by David Fischer which is a building in which each floor has the capability to rotate on its axis and face a different direction according to the resident’s preferences. In addition the building is able to produce its own energy from wind. Check out the video here:(Our email subscribers please visit: http://www.home-designing.com/2008/10/concept-architecture to view the video)

Thinking about booking a room here in advance? Here you go… (Something tells us it just maybe a bit expensive than your ordinary villa )

3. Nakheel Tower

You might have read about Burj Dubai Tower which currently is the tallest man made structure in the world and is expected to be of 818m height on completion but even that would be dwarfed when the Nakheel Tower (formerly called Al Burj) comes into being with a staggering height of 1.4 km (1400m)!

4. Songjiang Hotel

The beauty of this hotel is the way in which it negotiates the rugged terrain. The challenge involved designing a sustainable hotel in a quarry. See image below:

The hotel uses geothermal energy for electricity and heat, a green roof, and natural cooling properties of the quarry itself and yeah, Bungee jumping for guests!

You got to say Atkins did an awesome job. In case you are rubbing your chin thinking that the name does sound familiar, these are the guys who built the Burj Al Arab.

5. The Basket Building

The Longaberger Company is an American manufacturer of handcrafted maple wood baskets and offers other home and lifestyle products, including pottery, wrought iron, fabric accessories and specialty foods. Dave Longaberger believed the idea of shaping the office in the form of a bag would draw attention to the company, while simultaneously helping to build our brand.

6. Infosys Building, Kuwait

The proposed Infosys building in Kuwaits reminds us of DNA strands interlocked togethor. We are told the building would keep rotating.

7. Galactic Suite Space Hotel, International

Does booking a hotel in space sound like science fiction? Not according to Galactic Suite

Reuters report,

“Galactic Suite,” the first hotel planned in space, expects to open for business in 2012 and would allow guests to travel around the world in 80 minutes.

Guest would be able to “see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their rooms by sticking themselves to the walls,” But what about the price? Yep, truly out of the world: $4 million each for a three-day stay!

Tomorrow’s kitchens may be radically different from the ones we have now. They need to be space-saving, sophisticated, and more than anything, be kind to the environment. Take a close look at these kitchens of the future for you may be using one sooner than you expect (Especially since some of them are already out on stores!).

The above kitchen (designed by Cheng He, Liu Guang Kui and Zhou Dong from China) was the winning design at “Kitchen is heart of the home”, a kitchen design contest organized by DesignBoom where 2980 designers from 102 countries participated. Sow how does it work? Here is the description from the designers themselves.

(1). Creating the new concept of happy kitchen: Sharing the joy with relatives and friends face-to-face.

(2). Cupboard adopts double-deck rotator structure, can rotate 180°respectively, the three major work center of washing, mixing and cooking can rotate in the front of the operator, let “zero” distance in each workflow; And can lift in certain distance in order to be suitable for the different operator.

(3). Flume has two kinds of outlets: The parallel water outlets of induction type lie on both sides of flume; The holding type faucets with metal hose lie in the middle of two flumes, that can be suitable for operating under various environments.

(4).Abandon the board type, slide rail and hinge of the traditional cupboard completely. This cupboard regards the structure frame of aluminium alloy and the combination of stainless steel pipe as the integer structure. Adopt level bearing, hydraulic pressure system, shutting system to realize lifting of cupboard and wall cupboard.

(5). Integrative structures with operational table-board, flume and kitchen, cupboard distribute icebox, disinfector and oven symmetrically, other borders are closets.

(6). Lower cupboard is drawing structure, can pull out wholly while using, and make the operation simplify. Hang the kitchen ventilator under the top cupboard with function of illumination.

Here is another concept kitchen designed by Hieu Tranngoc and Hao Tran from Vietnam which drew inspiration from the shape of an apple tree with fruits hanging from its large branches. It incorporates a closet, a small fridge, an electric cooker, and the microwave oven the two large fruits hanging from the two branches. Additionally, there is provision for mounting an LCD monitor if you are into browsing while you cook.

At first glance, Lebrun’s design looks more like a kitchen garden than the actual kitchen. But that is before you get to know that the panel can be opened to reveal a workspace, cooking surface and sink. The plants on top are specialized ones that were developed by the aerospace industry for their filtering and cleaning properties. They provide a renewable supply of clean water and vegetable soap.

If you are conscious of conserving space, you will like this design by Fevzi Karaman which packs nearly everything the kitchen needs in one sleek module.

Alight kitchen from Altera Design Studio is an award winning design at the Incheon International Design Competition 2007 and it hosts a number of features.

Only ready-made food and beverages are consumed in sheet-metal packaging so people will be conscious about what and how much they eat.

Food and beverages packs will be kept inside the cooling unit of the system. It only allows storage of 3 days’ worth of food.

A Smart oven warms up the food in groups to minimize how often it’s used. It arranges the ideal time and temperature for the packs by reading their barcodes.

There are 4 hollow plates located on the main dining table. Each of them can rotate on its center-axis so you can eat on the either side of the plate. The center of the table houses a small flatware station.

The integrated dishwasher conserves water by filtering and reusing previous wash water.
All plates are stored underneath in their own compartments.

Whirlpool’s ‘green kitchen’ is a concept that pays a lot of attention to reduce wastage by diverting 60% of the water and heat generated from itself to fuel other appliances or functions in the kitchen. For example, it uses the heat from the fridge compressor to produce hot water for the dish washer.

Okay, so far we showed you kitchens that are not in the market yet. But those below are already out.

For example, this tech kitchen from designer Sebastien Poupeau is height adjustable, music enabled and web connected.

Who says the kitchen table needs to be rectangular? Not Enex… Their curvilinear design breaks away from the conventions and the kitchen seems to be taken right out of a Sci-Fi flick! Built in entertainment system seems to be a nice touch too.

More curvy kitchen workspaces…

This unit from Tokyo Kitchen can be arranged in a variety of ways depending on your space. It is aesthetic and functional with three electric cooking rings, a generous circular sink and plenty of space for storing kitchen items.

Let us know what you think about this.