The Truffle

The Truffle is a piece of nature built with earth, full of air. A space within a stone that sits on the ground and blends with the territory. It camouflages, by emulating the processes of mineral formation in its structure, and integrates with the natural environment, complying with its laws. To build it, we made a hole in the ground, piling up on its perimeter the topsoil removed, and we obtained a retaining dike without mechanical consistency. Then, we materialized the air building a volume with hay bales and flooded the space between the earth and the built air to solidify it. The poured mass concrete wrapped the air and protected itself with the ground. Time passed and we removed the earth discovering an amorphous mass. The earth and the concrete exchanged their properties. The land provided the concrete with its texture and color, its form and its essence, and concrete gave the earth its strength and internal structure. But what we had created was not yet architecture, we had fabricated a stone. We made a few cuts using quarry machinery to explore its core and discovered its mass inside built with hay, now compressed by the hydrostatic pressure exerted by concrete on the flimsy vegetable structure. To empty the interior, the calf Paulina arrived, and enjoyed the 50 m3 of the nicest food, from which she nourished for a year until she left her habitat, already as an adult and weighing 300 kilograms. She had eaten the interior volume, and space appeared for the first time, restoring the architectural condition of the truffle after having been a shelter for the animal and the vegetable mass for a long time.

Floating Villages of Titicaca

The Uros is the name of a group of pre-Incan people who live on 42 self-fashioned floating man-made islets located in Lake Titicaca off Puno, Peru. The islets are made of totora reeds, which grow in the lake. The dense roots that the plants develop support the islands. They are anchored with ropes attached to sticks driven into the bottom of the lake. The reeds at the bottoms of the islands rot away fairly quickly, so new reeds are added to the top constantly. This is especially important in the rainy season when the reeds rot a lot faster. The islands last about 30 years. The larger islands house about 10 families, while smaller ones, only about 30 meters wide, house only two or three.

Bora Bora

Bora Bora is surrounded by a lagoon and a barrier reef. In the centre of the island are the remnants of an extinct volcano rising to two peaks, Mount Pahia and Mount Otemanu, the highest point at 727 metres.

Alberobello

Alberobello is a small town and comune in the province of Bari, in Puglia, Italy. It has about 11,000 inhabitants and is famous for its unique trulli constructions. The Trulli of Alberobello are part of the UNESCO World Heritage sites list since 1996. There are many theories behind the origin of the design. One of the more popular theories is that due to high taxation on property the people of Puglia created dry wall constructions so that they could be dismantled when inspectors were in the area.

Korowai Tree Houses

The Korowai live together in small family groups in treehouses. These treehouses can reach heights up to 50 meters but only if there is a disput with the neighbours, or if they live in an hostile area. Their normal treehouses are around 6 to 25 Meters high. A Korowai family with up to eight persons live in such kind of houses. But there is a strictly separatism between men and women.

The Syracusia

Syracusia was a 110 m ancient Greek ship sometimes claimed to be the largest transport ship of antiquity. The Syracusia was designed by Archimedes and built around 240 BC by Archias of Corinth on the orders of Hieron II of Syracuse. The historian Moschion of Phaselis said that Syracusia could carry a cargo of some 1,600 to 1,800 tons and a capacity of 1942 passengers. It reputedly bore more than 200 soldiers, as well as a catapult. It sailed only once to berth in Alexandria, where it was later given to Ptolemy (Ptolemaios) III Euergetes of Egypt and renamed the Alexandria. Of particular interest in the discussion of the construction of the ship is the detailed description of the efforts taken to protect the hull from biofouling, including coating it with horsehair and pitch. This may be the first example of proactive antifouling technology (designed to prevent the attachment of fouling organisms, rather than to remove them. In terms of passenger comfort, the Syracusia would be the equivalent of the Titanic compared to other ships of the era. Its innovative design and sheer size allowed for the creation of various recreational spaces aboard, including a garden and an indoor swimming pool with hot water. The lower levels of the ship were reserved for the crew and the soldiers on board, while the upper levels were for the use of passengers.According to Athenaeus, the ship was beautifully decorated using materials such as ivory and marble, while all public spaces were floored with mosaics depicting the entire story of the Iliad. The ship was also equipped with a library, a drawing room and a gymnasium for use by the passengers, as well as a small temple dedicated to Aphrodite.

Niagara Falls

The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has a vertical drop of more than 50 meters. Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfalls (vertical height along with flow rate) in North America. The Niagara Falls are renowned both for their beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Managing the balance between recreational, commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls since the 19th century. Peak numbers of visitors occur in the summertime, when Niagara Falls are both a daytime and evening attraction. From the Canadian side, floodlights illuminate both sides of the falls for several hours after dark (until midnight). The number of visitors in 2009 was expected to top 28 million tourists a year. The observation deck of the nearby Skylon Tower offers the highest overhead view of the falls, and in the opposite direction gives views as far as distant Toronto. Along with the Tower Hotel, it is one of two towers in Canada with a view of the falls.

Iguazu Falls

The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 kilometres of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual falls are up to 82 metres in height, though the majority are about 64 metres. The Garganta del Diablo, a U-shaped 150-metre-wide and 700-metre-long cliff, is the most impressive of all, and marks the border between Argentina and Brazil. At one point a person can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls. The Garganta do Diabo has water pouring into it from three sides.

Horsetail Falls

Horsetail Fall is one of the most beautiful waterfalls on the North American continent, but it’s only truly special for two weeks a year. The first firefalls of Yosemite Park were man made. Large fires were started atop Glacier Point and the red-hot embers were pushed down the granite wall, in the evening. It was a nice show of fireworks, until the fire hazard of the 1960s, when the dangerous practice stopped. But that didn’t mean Yosemite was left without a firefall, if anything, people got to discover a much more beautiful one. When the natural conditions are just right, tourists can enjoy a unique spectacle where water turns into burning fire. During the last two weeks of February, when the sun shines above Yosemite Valley, and water pours down the granite wall, the firefall phenomenon takes place. But because clouds and storms are common during the winter months, and sometimes California has dry years, Horsetail Firefall can only be witnessed rarely, and timing is of the essence.

Giza Pyramid Complex

The Giza Necropolis stands on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments is located some eight kilometres inland into the desert from the old town of Giza on the Nile, some 25 kilometres southwest of Cairo city centre. The pyramids are the only remaining monuments of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

La Recoleta Cemetery

Set in 5.5 hectares the property contains 4691 vaults, all above ground, of which 94 have been declared National Historical Monuments by the Argentine government and are protected by the state. The entrance to the cemetery is through neo-classical gates with tall Doric columns. The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles such as Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque, and Neo-Gothic, and most materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of tombs were imported from Paris and Milan. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums.

Tent City

Mina is a location situated some 5 kilometres to the east of the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It stands on the road from Mecca's city centre to the Hill of Arafat. Mina is best known for the role it plays during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, when its tent cities provide temporary accommodation to millions of visiting pilgrims. In the valley of Mina is the Jamarat Bridge, the location of the Stoning of the Devil ritual, performed between sunrise and sunset on the last day of the Hajj. Mina is where Pilgrims would go to stone where the devil was as this is where it is said that Ibrahim stoned the devil that came between him and the command that Allah set him. Most pilgrims at Hajj walk around the Ka'aba 7 times, then visit the Well of Zamzam. Usually they spend their first night in the Valley of Mina. This ritual occurs on the eighth to twelfth day of hajj. At Mina men and women aren't allowed to sleep together.

Tama Art University Library

From Toyo Ito: This is a library for an art university located in the suburbs of Tokyo. Passing through the main entrance gate, the site lies behind a front garden with small and large trees, and stretches up a gentle slope. The existing cafeteria was the sole place in the university shared by both students and staff members across all disciplines, so the first impetus for our design was to question how an institution as specialised as a library could provide an open commonality for all. Our first idea was for a wide open gallery on the ground level that would serve as an active thoroughfare for people crossing the campus, even without intending to go to the library. To let the flows and views of these people freely penetrate the building, we began to think of a structure of randomly placed arches which would create the sensation as if the sloping floor and the front garden’s scenery were continuing within the building. The characteristic arches are made out of steel plates covered with concrete. In plan these arches are arranged along curved lines which cross at several points. With these intersections, we were able to keep the arches extremely slender at the bottom and still support the heavy live loads of the floor above. The spans of the arches vary from 1.8 to 16 metres, but the width is kept uniformly at 200mm. The intersections of the rows of arches help to articulate softly separated zones within this one space. Shelves and study desks of various shapes, glass partitions that function as bulletin boards, etc., give these zones a sense of both individual character and visual as well as spatial continuity. he spatial diversity one experiences when walking through the arches different in span and height changes seamlessly from a cloister-like space filled with natural light, to the impression of a tunnel that cannot be penetrated visually. The new library is a place where everyone can discover their style of “interacting" with books and film media as if they were walking through a forest or in a cave; a new place of arcade-like spaces where soft mutual relations form by simply passing through; a focal centre where a new sense of creativity begins to spread throughout the art university’s campus.

Sendai Mediatechque

MInistry of Transportation

A monumental grid of interlocking concrete forms rises on a steep wooded site in Tbilisi, Georgia. The project’s genesis might prompt most architects, so often at the mercy of clients’ fantasies, to swoon with envy. Mr. Chakhava was not only an architect but also the minister of highway construction. As such, he was not just his own client; he could also hand-pick the project’s site. Rising on an incline between two highways, the building’s heavy cantilevered forms reflect the Soviet-era penchant for heroic scale. Yet they also relate sensitively to their context, celebrating the natural landscape that flows directly underneath the building.

Maunsell Sea Forts

The Maunsell Sea Forts were small fortified towers built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War to help defend the United Kingdom. They were named after their designer, Guy Maunsell. The forts were decommissioned in the late 1950s and later used for other activities.

MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo

The São Paulo Museum of Art (in Portuguese, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or MASP) is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.[2] It's well-known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo Bardi, whose main body is supported by two lateral beams over a 74 meters freestanding space, considered an landmark of the city and a main symbol of modern Brazilian architecture.

Statue of Liberty

"The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States and is recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886. It was designated as a National Monument in 1924. Employees of the National Park Service have been caring for the colossal copper statue since 1933.

Munich Olympic Stadium

The Olympiastadion was considered revolutionary for its time. This included large sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilized by steel cables that were used for the first time in a large scale. The idea was to imitate the Alps and to set a counterpart to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, held during the Nazi-Regime. The sweeping and transparent canopy was to symbolize the new, democratic and optimistic Germany. This is reflected in the official motto: "The Happy Games".With a capacity of 80,000, the stadium also hosted many major football matches including the 1974 World Cup Final, in which West Germany beat the Netherlands with 2-1.

Mannheim Multihalle

Otto studied architecture in Berlin before being drafted into the Luftwaffe as a fighter pilot in the last years of World War II. It is said that he was interred in a French POW camp and, with his aviation engineering training and lack of material and an urgent need for housing, began experimenting with tents for shelter. In the 60s Frei Otto developed a theory of using well curved surfaces with opposing curvature, minimal surfaces, with equal tensions under prestress. He extended the technology from fabric to cable nets and used this formfinding method to develop some structures that surprised the architectural world. The Multihalle in Mannheim is an example of this with a doubly curved compression structure constructed out of 50mm square timber and spanning 60m.

Kowloon Walled City

Kowloon Walled City was a densely populated, largely ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, Hong Kong, at one time thought to be the most dense place on the planet. Originally a Chinese military fort, the Walled City became an enclave after the New Territories were leased to Britain in 1898. Its population increased dramatically following the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was controlled by Triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling, and drug use. In 1987, the Walled City contained 33,000 residents within its 6.5-acre (0.03 km2) borders. In January 1987, the Hong Kong government announced plans to demolish the Walled City. After an arduous eviction process, demolition began in March 1993 and was completed in April 1994.

Unite d'Habitation

Nagakin Capsule Hotel

The Nakagin Capsule Tower is a mixed-use residential and office tower designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa and located in Shimbashi, Tokyo, Japan. Completed in 1972, the building is a rare built example of Japanese Metabolism, a movement that became emblematic of Japan's postwar cultural resurgence.The building was the world's first example of capsule architecture built for actual use. The building is actually composed of two interconnected concrete towers, respectively eleven and thirteen floors, which house 140 prefabricated modules (or "capsules") which are each self-contained units. Each capsule measures 2.3 m × 3.8 m × 2.1 m and functions as a small living or office space. Capsules can be connected and combined to create larger spaces. Each capsule is connected to one of the two main shafts only by four high-tension bolts and is designed to be replaceable. No units have been replaced since the original construction.

Marina City

Marina city is a mixed-use residential/commercial building complex occupying an entire city block on State Street in Chicago. The building complex was designed in 1959 by Bertrand Goldberg and completed in 1964. When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. The complex was billed as a "city within a city", featuring numerous on-site facilities including a theatre, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, several stores and restaurants, and of course, a marina.

Deckhouse

Many architects has thought about 3d stacked villas with gardens but this is the only realized project we know about. The “Däckshus” by the Swedish subversive modernist hero Erik Friberger is a three story concrete construction where villas are placed later on. The distance between the decks is 4 meters and the plots varies from 144 m2 to 210 m2 and all installation is put in the circulation space. The idea was that the villas would expand with a growing family. Most of the houses was however already fully built from the beginning.

Dutch Pavillion 2000

From the architects site: Nature arranged on many levels provides both an extension to existing nature and an outstanding symbol of its artificiality. It provides multi-level public space as an extension to existing public spaces. And even by arranging existing programs on many levels it provides yet more extra space, at ground level, for visibility and accessibility, for the unexpected, for “nature.” Dividing up the space in the Dutch entry and arranging it on multiple levels surrounds the building with spatial events and other cultural manifestations. The building becomes a monumental multi-level park. It takes on the character of a happening.

Tower of Peace

The PL Peace Tower is 180 meters high and thanks to a low center of gravity (only 12 meters above ground), it can tilt up to 45 degrees and swing back to its original position. This makes it extremely resistant to earthquakes. Its strange but fascinating shape was achieved through the use of shotcrete, spaying concrete onto wire netting. The tower stands as monument to all the perished souls of war throughout all time. Within the tower is a shrine in which all known names of the lives claimed in human conflict have been recorded on microfilm and stored in a golden container. Once a year, the Church of Perfect Liberty headquarters is the site of one of the world's largest fireworks show. Every July 6th, the members celebrate the passing of their first founder with what they call the "PL Art of Fireworks". Unlike most fireworks shows which fire around 5,000 shells, the PL show consists of around 25,000 shells fired. During the finale about 7,000 shells are shot off in unison, nearly lighting the entire sky.

Tianzi Hotel

To begin, this incredible hotel seems to have a few different names depending on what you read, as far as I can tell it has been known as: Tianzi Hotel, The Emperor Hotel and the Son Of Heaven Hotel. The hotel is located in Hebei Province and built some time around 2000/2001, The building is 10 storeys/41.6m high and was designed to represent Fu Lu Shou (good fortune, prosperity and longevity). The hotel won a Guiness World Record for being the world's 'biggest image building'. Finally, you'll notice that Shou, the man on the left as you face the hotel, is holding what is apparently a peach. That peach is actually a suite within the hotel, the two holes in its front being windows.

Samarra Mosque

The Great Mosque of Samarra is a 9th century mosque located in Samarra, Iraq. The mosque was commissioned in 848 and completed in 851 by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil who reigned from 847 until 861. The Great Mosque of Samarra was at one time the largest mosque in the world; its minaret, the Malwiya Tower, is a vast spiralling cone 52 meters high and 33 meters wide with a spiral ramp. The mosque had 17 aisles, and its walls were panelled with mosaics of dark blue glass. It was part of an extension of Samarra eastwards.

Makedonium Monument

The Makedonium was built in 1974 on the 30th anniversary of ASNOM (Anti-Fascist Assembly of the Liberation of Macedonia) and the 71st anniversary of the Ilinden uprising, which resulted in the 10 day Kruševo Republic, the first republic on the Balkans. The short lived republic was put down by an immense number of Ottoman troops, but is still remembered as a high point in the national history. The President of the Republic visits the Makedonium each 2nd of August and it remains an important symbol for the country and is also portrayed on their currency.

Amsterdam Orphenage

Dutch Architect Aldo van Eyck built the Amsterdam Orphanage in 1960. His design focused on a balance of forces to create both a home and small city on the outskirts of Amsterdam. As a member of CIAM and then a founding member of Team 10, van Eyck held strong opinions on post-war architecture. The Amsterdam Orphanage was van Eyck’s opportunity to put his opinions in practice through his first large scale built project. Van Eyck criticized early post-war architecture as lacking a human element. In the Amsterdam Orphanage he sought to design a modern building with a new urban vision from those of his CIAM predecessors. CIAM, Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne, was an organization of architects founded between 1928 and 1959 to promote and discuss the principles of modern architecture. At the time of its completion, the Amsterdam Orphanage was located on the outskirts of the city. It was commissioned as an orphanage for children of all ages and includes sleeping quarters, a kitchen, laundry room, gymnasium, library, and administrative spaces. Van Eyck spoke of the Orphanage as a small urban study. He wrote “a house must be like a small city if it’s to be a real house, a city like a large house if it’s to be a real city” in an essay published in 1962 titled ‘Steps Toward a Configurative Discipline.’ Therefore van Eyck’s designs for the Orphanage were those of both a home for the children, as well as the plan of a small city. He created a decentralized urban node with many points of interaction within the plan. Van Eyck was interested in a nonhierarchical development of cities and in the Amsterdam Orphanage he created a building with many in-between conditions to break down the hierarchy of spaces. The building is constructed out of two sizes of modules, a smaller size for the residences, and a larger size for community spaces. The modules consist of four round columns at the corners with a domed roof of pre-cast concrete on top. The floor is also concrete. The many facades in the building are either a glass wall or a solid wall made with dark brown bricks. Within the Orphanage, units of program are laid out on an orthogonal grid. The units project off two diagonal paths so that each unit has multiple exterior facades. By projecting off of a diagonal within the grid, van Eyck creates an equal amount of negative spaces from the positives he’s formed. Each individual unit is then neighbored by its own outdoor space. A larger courtyard is offset diagonally from the residential spaces, and the entrance and administrative spaces connect with the street, the large courtyard, as well as the residential units. Van Eyck avoids creating a central point within the Orphanage by allowing for such fluid connections between all spaces.

Reichtag Dome

The Reichstag dome is a large glass dome with a 360 degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The debating chamber of the Bundestag, the German parliament, can be seen down below. A mirrored cone in the center of the dome directs sunlight into the building, and so that visitors can see the working of the chamber. The dome is open to the public and can be reached by climbing two steel, spiraling ramps that are reminiscent of a double-helix. The Dome symbolizes that the people are above the government, as was not the case during National Socialism. The glass dome was also designed by Foster to be environmentally friendly. Energy efficient features involving the use of the daylight shining through the mirrored cone were applied, effectively decreasing the carbon emissions of the building. The futuristic and transparent design of the Reichstag dome makes it a unique landmark, and symbolizes Berlin's attempt to move away from a past of Nazism and instead towards a future with a heavier emphasis on a united, democratic Germany. With the reunification of Germany and the decision to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin, it was also decided that the original Reichstag building be rebuilt along with a new dome that emphasized a unified Germany. Architect Norman Foster won a commission to design and rebuild the Reichstag in 1993. Foster originally wanted a parasol-esque building, not a dome, but his original design was rejected, partly due to the unrealistic costs. The design of the dome was at first controversial, but has become accepted as one of Berlin's most important landmarks. It derives from a design by Gottfried Böhm, who had previously suggested a cupola of glass with visitors walking on spiral ways to the top in 1988. His design was added to the information of the competition in 1992, which was won by Foster. Later the Bundestag decided that a cupola had to be built and Foster consequently gave up his resistance against it. Foster reused the idea of a spiral walkway within a conical structure for his design for City Hall in London some years later.

Meisi no Moro Funeral Hall

Prada Tokyo

Prada's Tokyo “epicenter”, in the fashionable Aoyama district, is the company's second radical approach to fashion-store architecture, following Rem Koolhaas’ flagship store in New York. The intent is "to reshape both the concept and function of shopping, pleasure and communication, to encourage the meshing of consumption and culture." The Tokyo store is a strikingly unconventional 6-story glass crystal that is soft despite its sharp angles – as a result of its five-sided shape, the smooth curves throughout its interior, and its signature diamond-shaped glass panes, which vary between flat, concave and convex “bubbles”. Jacques Herzog describes these glass panes as “an interactive optical device. Because some of the glass is curved, it seems to move as you walk around it. That creates awareness of both the merchandise and the city—there's an intense dialogue between actors. Also, the grid brings a human scale to the architecture, like display windows. It's almost old-fashioned.” At Prada Aoyama the glass walls are not the usual transparent curtain-walling (as at Renzo Piano’s Maison Hermes, across town in the Ginza district), but a transparent, structural shell. Within, the structural cores and tubes morph seamlessly into elevators, stairs, fitting rooms and display shelves, giving a sense of continuous shopping space, very much integrated into the architecture. The Prada building sits in a corner of its site, creating a small entrance plaza – an effective gesture of restraint from an otherwise rather unrestrained building. Herzog comments on the rarity of this locally: “Tokyo is a city where not a single building relates to its neighborhood, and every building fills its whole site. We took a chance in creating a little space outdoors, like in European cities. We also reversed the typical Japanese emphasis on looking inward by giving importance to the view.”

Sonic Boom

Many people have heard a sonic boom, but few have seen one. When an airplane travels at a speed faster than sound, density waves of sound emitted by the plane cannot precede the plane, and so accumulate in a cone behind the plane. When this shock wave passes, a listener hears all at once the sound emitted over a longer period: a sonic boom. As a plane accelerates to just break the sound barrier, however, an unusual cloud might form. The origin of this cloud is still debated. A leading theory is that a drop in air pressure at the plane described by the Prandtl-Glauert Singularity occurs so that moist air condenses there to form water droplets.

Aurora Borealis

Auroras are natural colored light displays, which are usually observed in the night sky, particularly in the polar zone.Auroras are now known to be caused by the collision of charged particles (ions (+) (-) ) found in the magnetosphere, with atoms in the Earth's upper atmosphere (at altitudes above 80 km). These particles travel into space with speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometers per second. A cloud of these particles is called plasma, and a stream of plasma coming from the sun is called solar wind.

Shark Shower

The Shark Shower is located at the Parker lake house on Lake Sinclair, 85 miles southeast of Atlanta, Georgia. John and his wife entertain a large number of guests during the summer months and often find the need for an extra shower to accommodate everyone after a hot day on the lake. Necessity, combined with inspiration from a niece fascinated by sharks, led to the idea of the shark-shaped shower. John designed and constructed the Shark Shower himself, with a little help from his friends. The process began with a scaled-up drawing of the shark. To allow enough space inside to shower, John quickly realized the shark would have to be close to 15 feet long and 3 feet in diameter. He constructed the frame from approximately 500 feet of steel and wire mesh. Welding turned out to be the most difficult step for John, as he had no prior experience working with metals. Not to be deterred, he went to the local pawnshop and bought an arc welder and taught himself to weld. After the frame was built out, the Shark Shower began to take shape. John then encapsulated the frame with 30 pounds of spray polyurethane foam. The steel teeth had to be sanded down so not to hurt any ankles or legs while showering. After that, the shark was covered in fiberglass and resin.

Tube Pavillion

Villa Dall'Ava

Much of the spatial composition of the Villa dall'Ava was influenced by its site, in a garden on a hill. It was completed in 1991 in the residential area of Saint-Cloud, overlooking Paris. The clients selected OMA to design a house with two distinct apartments—one for themselves and another for their daughter—and requested a swimming pool on the roof with a view of the Eiffel Tower.

French Communist HQ

The Communist headquarters by Oscar Niemeyer can be visited by appointment via e-mail message to Vincent Benoit at vbenoit@pcf.fr or by calling him at (33-1) 40.40.12.12

Mousgum Tribe Houses

Decorative mud huts that can be climbed The Mousgoum is an ethnic group in far north province in cameroon that creates their homes from compressed sun-dried mud. The tall conical dwellings, in the shape of a shell features geometric raised patterns. The decorative surface allows for further refinement and individualization. The veins are also contributing to the drainage of rain. The musgum houses require regular maintenance of the coating and the veins allow people to climb atop the building

Ksar Ouled

Ksar Ouled Soltane is a fortified granary, or ksar, located in the Tataouine district in southern Tunisia. The ksar is spread out over two courtyards, each of which has a perimeter of multi-story vaulted granary cellars, or ghorfas. Like other ksour (plural of ksar) created by North African Berber communities, Ksar Ouled Soltane is located on a hilltop, to help protect it from raiding parties in previous centuries. Ksar Ouled Soltane is now a tourist destination, with visitors coming to see its well-preserved granary vaults. It was also featured in the film Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in some of the scenes used to represented the slave quarters of Mos Espa, where the character Anakin Skywalker lived as a boy.

Grand Mosque of Djenna

The Great Mosque of Djenné in the West African country of Mali was originally constructed in the 13th Century. It gradually grew to be an enormous structure before it fell into ruins by the 19th Century. From 1906-7, it was rebuilt using adobe — the original building material. It is today the largest adobe structure in the world. The Great Mosque is built on a raised plinth platform of rectangular sun-dried mud bricks that are held together by mud mortar and plastered over with mud. The walls vary in thickness between 50 to 80cm, depending upon their height. These massive walls are necessary in order to bear the weight of the tall structure and also provide insulation from the sun’s heat. During the day, the walls gradually warm up from the outside; at night, they cool down again. The mosque’s prayer hall, with ninety wooden pillars supporting its ceiling, can contain as many as 3000 people. This helps the interior of the mosque to stay cool all day long. The Great Mosque also has roof vents with ceramic caps. These caps, made by the town’s women, can be removed at night to ventilate the interior spaces.

Tolchok Market

Empty shipping containers are commonly used as market stalls and warehouses in the countries of the former USSR. The biggest shopping mall or organized market in Europe is made up of alleys formed by stacked containers, on 170 acres (69 ha) of land, between the airport and the central part of Odessa, Ukraine. Informally named "Tolchok" and officially known as the Seventh-Kilometer Market it has 16,000 vendors and employs 1,200 security guards and maintenance workers. The independent traders on the market sell goods in all price ranges, from authentic merchandise to all sorts of cheap Asian consumer goods, including many counterfeit Western luxury goods. According to the impressions of S. L. Myers of the New York Times who visited the market in 2006, "the market is part third-world bazaar, part post-Soviet Wal-Mart, a place of unadulterated and largely unregulated capitalism where certain questions — about salaries, rents, taxes or last names — are generally met with suspicion." And Zerkalo Nedeli wrote in 2004 that "it is a state within a state, with its own laws and rules. It has become a sinecure for the rich and a trade haven for the poor."

Kariakoo Market

A water collecting marketplace. The Kariakoo market in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is such an example. Built in 1974 by the architect B.J. Amuli, the building offers three layers of market area and forms the centre of the Kariakoo market which is spread out in the neighborhood. The building is perfectly adapted to its function, but also to its environment. It provides for the necessary air circulation and the roof exists of a series of gigantic funnels to harvest the rain, to be stored in underground collection tanks.

Pristina National Library

The library was designed by the Croatian architect Andrija Mutnjakovic in 1982. The outside of the mammoth 16,500 square metre space-age building features a total of 99 white glass cupolas of different sizes and is entirely covered in a metal fishing net. The library was once home to a huge depository of Albanian literature, much of which, thanks to the enlightened leadership of Slobodan Milosovic, was turned into cardboard in the early 1990s. The equally beguiling interior which has some photos of old Pristina still contains over 5,000 fine examples of old and rare books and manuscripts, dating back to the 16th century. The library also holds many foreign titles, and membership is open to anyone.

Stahl House

From the architect. The Case Study House Program produced some of the most iconic architectural projects of the 20th Century, but none more iconic than or as famous as the Stahl House, also known as Case Study House #22 by Pierre Koenig. The modern residence overlooks Los Angeles from the Hollywood Hills. It was completed in 1959 for Buck Stahl and his family. Buck Stahl had envisioned a modernist glass and steel constructed house that offered panoramic views of Los Angeles when he originally purchased the land for the house in 1954 for $13,500. Stahl had originally begun to excavate and take on the duties of architect and contractor; it was not until 1957 when Stahl hired Pierre Koenig to take over the design of the family’s residence. The two-bedroom, 2,200 square foot residence is a true testament to modernist architecture and the Case Study House Program. The program was set in place by John Entenza and sponsored by the Arts & Architecture magazine. The aim of the program was to introduce modernist principles into residential architecture, not only to advance the aesthetic, but to introduce new ways of life both in a stylistic sense and one that represented the lifestyles of the modern age. Pierre Koenig was able to hone in on the vision of Buck Stahl and transform that vision into a modernist icon. The glass and steel construction is understandably the most identifiable trait of architectural modernism, but it is the way in which Koenig organized the spatial layout of the house taking the public and private aspects of the house into great consideration. As much as architectural modernism is associated with the materials and methods of construction, the juxtaposition of program and organization are important design principles that evoke utilitarian characteristics. The house is “L” shaped in that the private and public sectors are completely separated save for a single hallway that connects the two wings. Compositionally adjacent is the swimming pool that one must cross in order to get into the house; it is not only a spatial division of public and private but its serves as the interstitial space that one must pass through in order to experience the panoramic views. The living space of the house is set back behind the pool and is the only part of the house that has a solid wall, which backs up to the carport and the street. The entire house is understood to be one large viewing box that captures amazing perspectives of the house, the landscape, and Los Angeles. Oddly enough, the Stahl house was fairly unknown and unrecognized for its advancement of modern American residential architecture, until 1960 when Julius Shulman captured the pure architectural essence of the house. It was the night shot of two women sitting in the living room overlooking the bright lights of the city of Los Angeles. That photo put the Stahl House on the architectural radar as being an architectural gem hidden up in the Hollywood Hills.

Guggenheim Museum New York

In 1959, the museum moved from rented space to its current building, a landmark work of 20th-century architecture. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the cylindrical building, wider at the top than the bottom, was conceived as a "temple of the spirit". Its unique ramp gallery extends up from ground level in a long, continuous spiral along the outer edges of the building to end just under the ceiling skylight. The building underwent extensive expansion and renovations in 1992 (when an adjoining tower was built) and from 2005 to 2008.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. Built in 1997 alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Cantabrian Sea, it is one of several museums belonging to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and features permanent and visiting exhibits of works by Spanish and international artists. One of the most admired works of contemporary architecture, the building has been hailed as a "signal moment in the architectural culture", because it represents "one of those rare moments when critics, academics, and the general public were all completely united about something." The museum was the building most frequently named as one of the most important works completed since 1980 in the 2010 World Architecture Survey among architecture experts. The museum was opened as part of a revitalization effort for the city of Bilbao. Almost immediately after its opening, the Guggenheim Bilbao became a popular tourist attraction, drawing visitors from around the globe. In its first three years, almost 4 million tourists visited the museum, helping to generate about €500 million in economic activity. The regional council estimated that the money visitors spent on hotels, restaurants, shops and transport allowed it to collect €100 million in taxes, which more than paid for the building cost. "The Bilbao Effect" is a term when similar cities tries to do the same thing, making something spectacular to attract attention to that specific city or region.

Auroville

Auroville (City of Dawn) is an experimental township in Viluppuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, near Puducherry in South India. It was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa (called "The Mother" within Auroville) and designed by architect Roger Anger. As stated in Alfassa's first public message about the township, "Auroville is meant to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity."