BEST Forest Mall

Existing forest incorporated as an intrinsic part of the building.

Mont San Michel

Mont Saint Michel is a cloister town surrounded by the greatest tides in the world, running into and out of the Bay of Mont Saint Michel. The Mont Saint Michel tides invade the bay twice a day. An impressive and unforgettable spectacle which can be witnessed form the ramparts of the Mont Saint Michel which dominate the bay. The citadel on the island is one of the first gothic buildings ever erected.

Gold Pyramid House

Its builders, Jim and Linda Onan explain in three nouns and two adjectives what their unique home represents: "Power, Gold, Mystery, Exotic, and Impressive." The Onans are subscribers to the seventies cult theory of "pyramid power." Their home is believed to be the largest 24-karat gold-plated object in the world. Located on an island and surrounded by a giant moat, the Pyramid House has many remarkable features, including a 15 meter statue of King Tut, a metal palm tree and, a three car garage topped by three smaller pyramids.

No Man's Land Fort

No Man’s Land Fort is a floating fort built off the coast of the Isle of Wight between the years 1867 and 1880 to defend Portsmouth from the French during the Napoleonic wars. The fort is nearly 100 meters in diameter and rises 20 meters from the sea and is heavy framed with granite and steel walls. Its water supply comes from a borehole sunk into the seabed and it has its own electricity generators. Its sunken inner centre are screened from the elements by a glass roof and it is now a luxury home with 2 helipads, indoor swimming pool, Jacuzzis, gym and two restaurants among other things.

Montaña Magica

The hotel is shaped like a volcano and spews water from its top, has a cable bridge leading to its front door and often has an fantastic covering of moss and plant. Located within the Huilo Huilo Private Natural Reserve, the hotel is nestled among the natural world. Among the things at the reserve are the Huilo-Huilo Falls, Pudu, the world's smallest deer species, and the longest zip line system in South America. The Magic Mountain Hotel itself is built from local wood and stone and each of the nine rooms are equipped with modern amenities, large windows to look out at the forest, and each room is named after a different local species of bird. Among the offerings of the hotel are hotubs made out of huge trunks of trees, dug out, and then filled with hot water perched on a deck overlooking the forest. A mini golf course, built into the forest itself and using the natural world as the obstacles, and various outdoor activities such as horseback riding, rafting, and hiking.

Fort Knox

1929, when the economy in USA crashed, everyone wanted to change dollars for gold. But there were more dollar bills in circulation than there were gold so Franklin Roosevelt made a law in 1933 that no private person could own gold anymore. All the gold that was changed in for dollars needed a home, and Fort Knox was built. Below the fortress-like structure lies the gold vault, which is lined with granite walls and which is protected by a blast-proof door that weighs 22 tons. No single person is entrusted with the entire combination to the vault. Gold holdings peaked during World War II at 20,205 tons that would be worth approximately $765 billion. Current holdings are around 5,050 tons in around 368,000 standard 12.4 kg gold bars.

Dogon Tribe Court

The Dogon are strongly oriented toward harmony, which is reflected in many of their rituals. For instance, in one of their most important rituals, the women praise the men, the men thank the women, the young express appreciation for the old, and the old recognize the contributions of the young. The Hogon is the spiritual leader of the village. He is elected between the oldest men of the enlarged families of the village. After his election he has to follow a six-month initiation period, during which he is not allowed to shave or wash. He wears white clothes and nobody is allowed to touch him. During the danyim, a funeral ritual, masqueraders perform dances every morning and evening for anytime up to six days depending on how that village performs this ritual. The masqueraders dance on the deceased’s rooftops, throughout the village, and the area of fields around the village (Davis, 68). Until the masqueraders have completed their dances and every ritual has been performed, it is said that any misfortune can be blamed on the remaining spirits of the dead Tógu nà: a building only for men. They rest here much of the day throughout the heat of the dry season, discuss affairs and take important decisions in the toguna.[12] The roof of a toguna is made by 8 layers of millet stalks. It is a low building in which one cannot stand upright. This helps avoiding violence when discussions get heated.

Rainbow River

Often referred as the "river of five colors", "the river that ran away from paradise," and "the most beautiful river in the world." It is indeed a unique biological wonder. For a short period of the year the river blossoms in a rainbow of colours. During that brief span between the wet and dry seasons, when the water level is just right, the many varieties of algae and moss bloom in a dazzling display of colours. Blotches of yellow, blue, green, black, red and a thousand shades in between, coat the river.

Kansas Public Library Garage

The book spines, which measure approximately 9 meters by 3 meters, are made of signboard mylar. The shelf showcases 22 titles reflecting a wide variety of reading interests as suggested by Kansas City readers and then selected by The Kansas City Public Library Board of Trustees

Iguana Park

Parque Seminario (also known as Parque de Las Iguanas or Iguana Park) located on 10 de Agosto Avenue and Chile Avenue, is home to dozens of iguanas, some of which approach 2 meters in length. Tourists and locals alike often feed the iguanas mango slices from park vendors. The park is situated in the heart of Guayaquil, a city of five million inhabitants.

Meroë

Meroë was the southern capital of the Napata/Meroitic Kingdom, that spanned the period c. 800 BC - c. 350 AD. The site of the city of Meroë is marked by more than two hundred pyramids in three groups, of which many are in ruins. This can be compared to approximately 120 pyramids that were constructed in Ancient Egypt over a period of 3000 years. The pyramids at Meroë are identified as Nubian pyramids because of their distinctive size and proportions.

Parco dei Monstri

The Park of the Monsters, or "Parco dei Mostri," in the Garden of Bomarzo was not meant to be pretty. Commissioned in 1552 by Prince Pier Francesco Orsini, it was an expression of grief designed to shock. The Prince, also known as Vicino, had just been through a brutal war, had his friend killed, held for ransom for years and come home only to have his beloved wife die. Racked with grief the Prince wanted to create a shocking "Villa of Wonders" and hired architect Pirro Ligorio to help him do so. Ligorio was a widely respected architect and artist and had previously completed the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Rome after the death of Michelangelo, and the Villa d'Este in Tivoli. When you are in the park be sure to enter the giant screaming mouth, (known as the mouth of hell) inside of which there is a picnic table on the tongue and enough seating space for a small group to have lunch.

Blood Falls

This five-story, blood-red waterfall pours very slowly out of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. When geologists first discovered the frozen waterfall in 1911, they thought the red color came from algae, but its true nature turned out to be much more spectacular. Roughly two thousand years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist in a world with no light or free oxygen and little heat, and are essentially the definition of "primordial ooze." The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within. The existence of the Blood Falls ecosystem shows that life is indeed possible in the most extreme of Earths conditions.

Badain Jaran Desert

Badain Jaran Desert is home to the tallest stationary dunes on Earth. Reaching over 500 meters tall, they are roughly the same size as the world's tallest buildings. This area also shares a mysterious property with some three dozen other deserts around the world. Known as singing sands, whistling sands, or booming dunes, the dunes of the Badain Jaran Desert make a surprising amount of noise. Singing sands are generated when the desert wind pulls the top layer of sand off layer below. It is believed that the noise is generated by electrostatic charge this action creates. On a small scale, such as a beach, this phenomenon creates a high-pitched sound, but on a much larger scale, it can emit a low-pitched rumble or booming sound, and at up to 105 decibels, it can be quite loud and the mechanism that makes the sound is still not fully understood.

Boston Molasses Disaster

The Boston Molasses Disaster, also known as the Great Molasses Flood and the Great Boston Molasses Tragedy, occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. A large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of 9 million liter of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 60 km/h, killing 21 and injuring 150. Nearby, buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of one meter. The event has entered local folklore, and residents claim that on hot summer days, the area still smells of molasses. It took over 87,000 man hours to remove the molasses from the cobblestone streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes, meanwhile kids could skate on the hard and thick layers of glazed syrup.

Venice

The city historically was the capital of an independent nation. Luigi Barzini, writing in The New York Times, described it as "undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man". The city stretches across 118 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy. The Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as a very important center of commerce. Venice is also famous for its musical, particularly operatic, history, and its most famous son in this field is Antonio Vivaldi.

Rhyolite Saloon

In the old ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada, a saloon owner named Tom Kelly, built a house out of bottles because lumber was scarce at the time. Reportedly he used some 50,000 beer, whiskey, soda and medicine bottles to build the structure which still stands today. Mr. Kelley was 76 years old when he built the house and it took him almost six months to complete.

Nuclear Vault

A massive concrete lid with 107 m in diameter lies on this tropical island. After WW2 the residents were evacuated, often involuntarily, and the atoll was used for nuclear testing as part of the U.S. Pacific Proving Grounds. Beneath this concrete dome with a diameter of 107 meters, on Runit Island (part of Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands), built between 1977 and 1980 at a cost of about $239 million, lie 85000 cubic meters of radioactive soil and debris from from 43 atomic and thermonuclear explosions on Bikini and Rongelap atolls between 1948 and 1958. The dome covers the meter deep and 107 meter wide crater created by the May 5, 1958, Cactus test which was 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.

San Juan de Chamula Church

Chamula is located in the Chiapas highlands, at an altitude of 2,200 meters inhabited by the indigenous Tzotzil Maya people, whose Tzotzil language is one of the Mayan languages. The town enjoys unique autonomous status within Mexico. No outside police or military are allowed in the village. Chamulas have their own police force. The church of San Juan is filled with colorful candles, and smoke from burning copal resin incense, commonly used throughout southern Mexico. The local form of Catholicism is a blend of pre-conquest Maya customs, Spanish Catholic traditions, and subsequent innovations. There are no pews in the church, and the floor area is completely covered in a carpet of green pine boughs and soda bottles (mostly Coca Cola). Medicine men diagnose medical, psychological or ‘evil-eye’ afflictions and prescribe remedies such as candles of specific colors and sizes, specific flower petals or feathers, or a live chicken. The specified remedies are brought to a healing ceremony. Chamula families kneel on the floor of the church with sacrificial items, stick candles to the floor with melted wax, drink ceremonial cups of Posh, artisanal sugar-cane-based liquor, Coca Cola or Pepsi, and chant prayers in an archaic dialect of Tzotzil.

Mole's Apartment

A medium-length picture about the famous children hero - little Mole. A cheerful story in which Mole and his friends - the rabbit and the hedgehog - get into a town where they are forced to live for a certain period of time. However, the animals do not like life in the town at all. They take the first opportunity to get back to their forest. They had a really kick-ass apartment though, an inflatable forest which the mole later destroys by accident while opening a champagne bottle with a corkscrew.

Le Palais Ideal

Cheval began the building in April 1879. He claimed that he had tripped on a stone and was inspired by its shape. He returned to the same spot the next day and started collecting stones. For the next 33 years, during his daily mail route, Cheval carried stones from his delivery rounds and at home used them to build his Palais idéal, the Ideal Palace. First he carried the stones in his pockets, then a basket and eventually a wheelbarrow. He often worked at night, by the light of an oil lamp. Cheval spent the first two decades building the outer walls. The Palace is a mix of different styles with inspirations from the Bible to Hindu mythology. Cheval bound the stones together with lime, mortar and cement. Cheval also wanted to be buried in his palace. However, since that is illegal in France, he proceeded to spend eight more years building a mausoleum for himself in the cemetery of Hauterives. Cheval died on August 19, 1924, around a year after he had finished building it, and is buried there.

Koh Pannyi

The south-western coast of Thailand offers a series of beautiful bays lined with many islands. Phang-nga Bay's special formations were created after the thawing of ice 15,000 years ago. Rising waters then submerged arid calcareous mountains, leaving only their peaks visible to the eye. The bay was turned into a marine park in 1981. One of its popular attractions is the village of Koh Panyi, which was built on piles two centuries ago by Muslim sailors coming from Malaysia. The inhabitants make a living via traditional fishing and tourism. Preserved by its configuration, the bay floor of Phang-nga Bay suffered much less from the tsunami of December 26, 2004 than nearby sites.

Devil's Pool

A famous feature of the Victoria Falls is a naturally formed pool known as the Devil's Pool, near the edge of the falls, accessed via Livingstone Island. When the river flow is at a safe level, usually during the months of September and December, people can swim as close as possible to the edge of the falls within the pool without continuing over the edge and falling into the gorge; this is possible due to a natural rock wall just below the water and at the very edge of the falls that stops their progress despite the currents.

Central Park

Central Park is a large public, urban park that occupies over 340 hectares in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. It is host to approximately twenty-five million visitors each year. Central Park was opened in 1859, completed in 1873 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963. While much of the park looks natural, it is in fact almost entirely landscaped.

Ant Megacolony

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination. Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica. In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the "Californian large", extends over 900km along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan. The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society

The Boneyard

TAMARG was established in 1946, shortly after World War II as the 4105th Army Air Force Unit to house B-29 and C-47 aircraft. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was chosen because of Tucson's low humidity, infrequent rainfall, alkaline soil and high altitude of 780–880 m, reducing rust and corrosion.The hard soil makes it possible to move aircraft around without having to pave the storage areas. It takes care of more than 4,400 aircraft, including 700 F-4 Phantom IIs, whose total original purchase price is estimated at $27 billion.

Varanasi

Varanasi (or Benares, Banaras, Kashi), on the left bank of the Ganges, is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus. It is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, according to legend, the city was founded by the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva, around 5,000 years ago. Mark Twain wrote: "Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." Varanasi has the finest (religious) river frontage in India, with miles of ghats (steps) for bathing; an array of shrines, temples, and palaces rises tier on tier from the bank. More than a million pilgrims visit each year; many hope to die there in old age.

Oil Rocks

The Oil Rocks is a full town on the sea, it was the first oil platform in Azerbaijan and it was built in 1947 as an exercise of Soviet and Azeri ambition. The Oil Rocks lies 45-50 km offshore on the Caspian Sea and the most distinctive feature of the Oil Rocks is that it is actually a functional city with a population of about 5,000 and over 200 km of streets built on piles of dirt and landfill. Most of the inhabitants work on shifts; a week on Oil Rocks followed by a week on the shore. The small city includes shops, school and a library. The facility is poorly maintained, with miles of roads now submerged beneath the sea. Around some worker's dormitories, the waterline now stands at the second-floor windows. Although a full one-third of the Oil Rocks complex's 600 wells are inoperative or inaccessible, operations have continued without a significant increase in investment. The site, despite its imperfections, still produces over half of the total crude oil output of Azerbaijan.

The Richat Structure

The Richat Structure has attracted attention since the earliest space missions because it forms a conspicuous bull's-eye in the otherwise rather featureless expanse of the desert. The structure, which has a diameter of almost 50 kilometres, has become a landmark for space shuttle crews. Initially interpreted as a meteorite impact structure because of its high degree of circularity, it is now thought to be a symmetrical uplift that has been laid bare by erosion.

Panorama Hotel

Hotel Panorama is located in the village of Strbske Pleso, which is formed around the biggest tarn on the slovak side of the Vysoke Tatry Mountains. The hotel is adjacent to the train and bus station, and the lake alike. Hotel Panorama is built over a valley, so many of the rooms have a wonderful view on the High and Low Tatras.

Mirny Diamond Mine

The Mirny Diamond Mine, which operated from 1955 through 2004, is one of the world's largest mines. The mine is so deep that the surrounding air zone is closed for helicopters after a few accidents when they were sucked in by downward air flow. It would take a truck two hours to drive from the bottom of the mine to the lip.

Senetil de las Bodegas

Named after its once flourishing wineries - bodegas - Setenil is probably unique among the pueblos blancos,white villages, of Andalucia. Where most pueblos blancos were built on protective bluffs and pinnacles, this town grew out of a network of caves in the cliffs above the rio Trejo north-west of Ronda. Its blinding white houses seem to emerge from the rocks, and some have rock roofs and even olive groves on their roofs.

Egyptian Pigeon Towers

Pigeon towers are very common in the Egyptian country side and goes way back into ancient times. They are homes for pigeons to live and roam freely. Pots and pipes are cemented together in horizontal layers with some of them opening to the outside of the tower and others to the inside. Inside the tower there is either a ladder or a stairway by means of which the owner can climb up to claim the squabs (young feathered pigeons who are not yet flying) to confine them and fatten them up for eating. Pigeon is eaten stuffed with either rice or whole wheat or it is grilled or made into casseroles. They are a dark meat bird and very tasty. Most pigeons that have any colour plumage other than the feral dark greyish blue (the wild rock dove) are owned by someone in Egypt because they are so easy to raise.

Maijishan

Located Southeast of Tianshyui City in Gansu Province on a 142 meters high hill named Maijishan, meaning "Wheat-pile Hill". Work on the grottoes started in the late 4th century and continued through successive dynasties until the 19th century. There are 194 existing caves, in which are preserved more than 7,000 sculptures made of terra cotta and over 1,000 square meters of murals. Earthquakes, rain and fire have damaged a large part of the caves and wooden structures. But still worth a visit!

Sanije Liu

This is the world largest natural theater which utilizes the waters of the Li River as its stage, with twelve mist shrouded hills and the heavens as its backdrop. Mist, rain, moonlight, the hills and their inverted reflections in the river all become the ever-changing natural background. Its auditorium is housed on the natural islands of the river with the audience standing on the designed terraces, surrounded by green plants. The sound equipment here cannot be seen because it is in harmony with the natural environment. The valleys, the hills, the cool breeze and the streams are all elements contributing to the three-dimensional sound effect. Day by day, different weather offers different sceneries with the four seasons refreshing the performance as well, so you will have unique experience every time you watch it. The creators call this humbly- 'Human's Masterpiece Cooperated with the God'. The performance is divided into seven chapters including the preface and epilogue. Each chapter has its own colors and effects. The peformance lasts for 70 minutes and 600 plus actors and actress are involved．

Marsh Arabs Village

The Marsh Arabs (Maadan) has developed a unique culture centred around the marshes' natural resources. Most Marsh Arabs lives in arched reed houses. The typical dwelling is usually a little more than 2 meters wide, about 6 meters long, and a little less than three meters high, and was either constructed at the waterside or on an artificial island of reeds called a kibasha; a more permanent island of layered reeds and mud was called a dibin. Houses had entrances at both ends and a screen in the middle; one end was used as a dwelling and the other end was used to shelter animals in bad weather. The marsh environment meant that certain diseases, such as bilharzia and malaria, were endemic; Maadani agriculture and homes were also vulnerable to periodic droughts and flooding. After the people of the marshes rose against Saddam Hussein, he began drying the marshes by channeling water away from them and directly into the Shatt el Arab. Most of the inhabitants were killed or fled to Iran, so that only 40,000 of the original 250,000 to 500,000 people remained. In the first four years, Saddam drained 60 percent of the marsh; today only 7 percent remains. According to a report made by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2001, the marshlands that once covered between 5,800 and 7,700 square miles now comprised just 386 square miles. UNEP ranked the destruction of the marsh with the desiccation of the Aral Sea and the deforestation of the Amazon as one of the worst environmental disasters in history. But the Marsh Arabs continues to live their lives.

Tiger Temple

The Tiger Temple was founded in 1994 as a forest monastery and sanctuary for numerous wild animals. According to the abbot and others associated with the temple, in 1999, the temple received the first tiger cub, it had been found by villagers and died soon after. The story goes that several tiger cubs were later given to the temple over time, typically when the mothers had been killed by poachers. As of 2007, over 21 cubs have been born at the temple and the total number of tigers is about 12 adult tigers and 4 cubs. They spend most of the time in cages, being fed with cooked chicken, beef and dry cat food. The meat is boiled to avoid giving the tigers a taste for blood. The tigers are washed and handled by Thai monks, and once a day they are walked on leashes to a nearby quarry. Originally they would roam around freely in this area but now, with the increase in visitors and the amount of tigers who sit in the canyon, they are chained for safety reasons.

Maho Beach

Saint Martin is a tropical island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 300 km east of Puerto Rico. The island is divided roughly in half between France and the Netherlands Antilles; it is the smallest inhabited sea island divided between two nations. The island is served by many major airlines that bring in large jet aircrafts, including Boeing 747's and Airbus A340's carrying tourists from across the world on a daily basis. The short length of the main runway at Princess Juliana International Airport, and its position between a large hill and a beach causes some spectacular approaches. Aviation photographers flock to the airport to capture pictures of large jets just a couple of metres above sunbathers on Maho Beach.

Russian Pyramids

Inventor Aleksandr Golod believes that the two dozen pyramids he has built harmonize their surroundings. The largest of his pyramids is 44 meters tall and built completely out of fiberglass. This pyramid, named the Golden Section Pyramid, is located just outside of Moscow and is a major tourist attraction as many flock to view the spectacle and absorb the healing energy it is claimed to generate. Golod has teamed with other researchers in studying the positive effects of the energetic field surrounding the pyramids. Russian radar discovered a column of energy beaming up from the Golden Section Pyramid. It is thought this energy column could be an ionic field radiating beneficial effects up and outward and possibly even healing holes in the ozone layer. Other research has found possibilities for improved immune system functioning, reduction of radioactivity, increasing oil viscosity to improve output and higher crop yields. Crystalline structures placed in the pyramids have been taken to the MIR space station and used in jails for further research. Russian scientific institutions are researching the pyramid's effects as they explore ancient roots of what could be modern healing practices.

Kelimutu Crater Lakes

Kelimutu is a volcano close to the town of Moni in central Flores Island of Indonesia, containing three summit crater lakes of varying colors. Tiwu Ata Mbupu (Lake of Old People) is usually blue and is the westernmost of the three lakes. The other two lakes, Tiwu Nuwa Muri Koo Fai (Lake of Young Men and Maidens) and Tiwu Ata Polo (Bewitched or Enchanted Lake) are separated by a shared crater wall and are typically green or red in color, respectively. The lake colors do vary on a periodic basis. Subaqueous fumaroles are the probable cause of active upwelling that occurs at the two eastern lakes. The scenic lakes are a popular tourist destination. Keli Mutu is also of interest to geologists because the three lakes are different colors yet reside at the crest of the same volcano.

Swiss Bunkers - Hidden in Rock

Who would have thought that peaceful Switzerland could have produced camouflaged architecture during the cold war: fake upper-middle-class houses, fake farmhouses, fake rocks, etc. Fake buildings are in general always cool in one way or another and that some fake trees actually are a highly sophisticated missile detector are of course supercool.

Swiss Bunkers - Fake Trees

Who would have thought that peaceful Switzerland could have produced camouflaged architecture during the cold war: fake upper-middle-class houses, fake farmhouses, fake rocks, etc. Fake buildings are in general always cool in one way or another and that some fake trees actually are a highly sophisticated missile detector are of course supercool.

Swiss Bunkers - Fake Brick

Who would have thought that peaceful Switzerland could have produced camouflaged architecture during the cold war: fake upper-middle-class houses, fake farmhouses, fake rocks, etc. Fake buildings are in general always cool in one way or another and that some fake trees actually are a highly sophisticated missile detector are of course supercool.

Viken

The focus of interest is a solitary tree in a marshland at the lakeside. At first the designers defined the viewpoint of the scene, the idea was to make a scenery like a painting. They used a layer technique to create a picture and worked with nature's own layers to achieve the typical layout of a landscape painting. The basic setup was defined as: -a diffuse background -the tree as the focus in the painting -a foreground giving the scene a defined frame Bravo!

Barbershop Mall

This mirror clad mall with a Guggenheim-like ramp has only barbershops in it, we counted them to around 80, the cheaper ones are higher up. What also enhances this insane mall is the tacky Darth Vader character that walks around, making it a South American Star Wars feeling over the whole place. A must see.

Matterhorn

Although not the highest mountain in the Alps, the Matterhorn is considered as an iconic emblem of the region of the Swiss Alps. The Matterhorn acquired its characteristic pyramidal shape by natural erosion over the past million years. At the beginning of alpine orogeny, the Matterhorn was only a rounded mountain like a hill. Because its height is above the snowline, its flanks are covered by ice, resulting from the accumulation and compaction of snow. During the warmer period of summer, part of the ice melts and seeps into the bedrock. When it freezes again, it fractures pieces of rock because of its dilatation (Freeze Thaw), forming a cirque. Four cirques led to the actual shape of the mountain.

Cave School

Built in 1984, this school sits in one of three caves inside a mountain. Nowadays, it accomodates 186 students with a teaching force of 8 staff. Eerie but cool, we think the kids like their school setting too.

Xanadu

"Here, on the deserts of the Gulf coast, a private mountain was commissioned and successfully built. One hundred thousand trees, twenty thousand tons of marble are the ingredients of Xanadu's mountain. Contents of Xanadu's palace: paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones of many another palace - a collection of everything so big it can never be catalogued or appraised; enough for ten museums; the loot of the world. Xanadu's livestock: the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, the beast of the field and jungle. Two of each; the biggest private zoo since Noah. Like the Pharaohs, Xanadu's landlord leaves many stones to mark his grave. Since the Pyramids, Xanadu is the costliest monument a man has built to himself." From the intro to Citizen Kane

Antigone

Antigone is an enormous project. While some of Bofill's earlier housing, in the Paris new towns, for example, were large, nothing compares with this. This is virtually a new town. It is almost one kilometer long. It includes about 4,000 new dwellings and 20,000 sq. meters of commercial space, much new office space, the Languedoc-Roussillon regional government headquarters, various city and other government offices, many restaurants and cafes, special housing for students and artists, schools, sports facilities, and underground parking. All of Bofill's buildings at Antigone are built of prefabricated concrete panels which are rendered as a veneer of classical detail; pediments, plinths, capitols, friezes, balustrades, casement windows, moldings and other details.

Pepsi Moon

Pepsi´s advertising is once again feautered in the vd guide. Rumors says that Pepsi co had plans to project its logo when the moon was full, taking commercial signs to a new pharaoic scale. The diameter of the moon is roughly 3,476 km, therefore the total visible area for the logo would be 9,500,000 sq km. It is hard to find information about the project since this kind of attempts gets a lot of criticism from different organisations. Pepsis interest in space is however no secret, in 1996, the cosmonauts Yuri Ivanovich Onufrienko and Yuri Vladimirovich Usachyov took video footage of a giant aluminum and nylon Pepsi can and a banner with the text, "Even in space" .Video footage of the can and banner was shot both inside and outside Mir space station but the commercial never aired because Pepsi later changed the design of the can.