Monday, August 8, 2011

The Stone Forest (China)

 

The Shilin (Chinese for stone forest) is an impressive example of karst topography. Its rocks are made of limestone and are formed by water percolating the ground's surface and eroding away everything but the pillars. It's known since the Ming Dynasty as the 'First Wonder of the World.

Enchanted Well - Chapada Diamantina National Park (Brazil)

Enchanted Well - Chapada Diamantina National Park (Brazil)


Poco Encantado, or Enchanted Well, is located in the Chapada Diamantina National Park inBahia state, approximately 400 kilometres inland from Salvador, the capital city of Bahia.This giant sunken pool is 120 feet deep and the water is so transparent the ancient rocksand tree trunks are visible on the bottom. When the sun is just right, light comes through acrevice and creates a blue reflection on the water. Access to this pond is highly controlledfor environmental protection of its rare and delicate ecosystem.


Geological Wonders - The Valley of the Moon (Argentina)

Geological Wonders - The Valley of the Moon (Argentina)


Ischigualasto, meaning "the place WHERE you put the moon" is a remote valley in Argentina.It is studded with geological Formations left by Wind Erosion, amazing standing stones andBoulders That are so rounded They look like enormous Marbles. The Valley's once-fertileground is now arid and contains so many plant and animal Fossils That paleontologists comefrom all over the world to study Them.

Erosion over the millennia unearths the Fossils as well as other geological Formations Such as a host of Almost spherical concretions. The wind, inexorable and patient, has pounded the local bedrock for an age. Revealed, The Boulders That mudstone - in its original wet form, helped to form look as if giants have been playing Marbles.
 

10 Best Places For Living

10 Best Places For Living

1. Living in a Billboard

This has got to be recycling at its best. Why throwout perfectly good billboards when you can reuse them as a living space? I don't know about you, but how many billboards have you seen that would make a good onebedroom apartment? This may be the idea, but we shall see if it comes into practical use. 


2.  Living in a Walking House


WALKING HOUSE is a modular dwelling system that enables persons to live a peaceful nomadic life, moving slowly through the landscape or cityscape with minimal impact on the environment. It collects energy from its surroundings using solar cells and small windmills. There is a system for collecting rain water and a system for solar heated hot water. 


3.  Living under the Grass


At first sight, the place seems inhospitable. A rocky cliff facing North, unsheltered, where the wind blows cold and makes the waves break would seem the last place you would want to build your house in. But its owners didn't think the same way and, thus, an unusual building of angular, butsober, lines was built to merge perfectly with the surrounding environment. Located in Loredo, in the north coast of Spain, facing the Cantabrian Sea (Bay of Biscay), the OS house, a project by the Nolaster group of architects, has, as its main characteristic, its covering, which is none other than grass.


4.  Living in a Water Tower


"The Tower," a Tri Level House Standing 85 Feet Tall, is a Replica of a Historical Water Tower that was Reconstructed. The Architectural Design is Combined with a Designer Interior Layout. The Water Tower Features a 360 Degree, Unsurpassed View of the Pacific Ocean, Huntington Harbour and the San Gabriel River. 



5.  Living over a Bridge


Max Pritchard Architect brought out the adventurer side in you. Living inside a “bridge” surrounded by the lush green scenery was challenging. It was the Bridge House. The house design was consisted of two steel trusses with concrete floors and steel decking. There was a roof made of plantation pipes. The unique house had transparent walls made of glass. The outdoor feeling in was brought by another great example of narrow housing. The box house was situated at one hour's drive from Adelaide, worth $175,000.


6. Living inside an Airplane

This accommodation is not a private dwelling but instead a suite that is part of the Hotel Costa Verde, a hotel located near Quepos, Costa Rica. It's a fully outfitted, meticulously detailed, two bedroom, Boeing 727 fuselage suite. The creators have refurbished a vintage 1965 Boeing 727 airframe, which in its prior life shuttled globetrotters on South Africa Air and Avianca Airlines(Colombia). 


7. Living in a Church


This stunning Gothic Revival-style building is now one of the most extraordinary and largest single family homes in San Francisco. Built in 1909 in San Francisco's famed Mission District, this church fell on hard times in recent years when its dwindling membership did not have the money to finance needed renovations. Enter businessman Siamak Akhavan who purchased the church for $2.25 million and invested another $3 million in it, turning it into a three-bedroom, 2-½ bath, twelve-room home. Its features include an enormous living area, which includes the original sanctuary (with soaring, hand-painted ceilings, arched windows, and most of the original stained glass windows), custom mahogany wood finishes, four fireplaces, and a new chef's kitchen. The Master Suite includes a marble Roman tub room, dressing room, and incredible 360 degree views from the tower meditation room. It's back on the market again, too. Asking price? A cool $7.5 million.


8.  Living on a 2,575m Peak

Since 1983, the Rifugio Nuvolau has been a refuge for exhausted trekkers, providing comfort and solace to those trudging in Italy's dramatic DolomiteMountains. Even during World War 1, the 2,575m high hut served as a point for surveying situations on the summit. Besides a flashback in history, the location will provide a bed, eatables, and the jolly company of other outdoorsy souls like you. 


9. Living on a Boat – on shore.


The Ship Residence sits on South Bass Island in Lake Erie at Put-in-Bay, Ohio. Its based on what is left of the former Great Lakes Shipping Boat, The Benson Ford. The boat was built by Henry Ford (of Ford Motors and the Model T) and named after his grandson. After 50 years of service on the Great Lakes, the Benson Ford was scheduled in 1986 to be scrapped. This is when an Ohio couple stepped in and the captain's quarters of the Benson Ford became The Ship Residence, a private home on South Bass Island.

The front section of the Benson Ford is where the walnut paneled state rooms, dining room, galley, and passenger lounge were located. These elegant quarters were removed from the rest of the ship and brought to land to make up the magnificent Ship Residence. 



 10. Living Upside Down


Klaudiusz Golos and Sebastion Mikuciuk created this upside down house for an exhibit in Trassenheide, Germany. It's clearly unlivable but still a lot of fun. 


how do you think, are you interested?

Best And Amazing Tree Houses

Wilkinson Residence






Architect, artist, magician, Robert Harvey Oshatz is all of That and so much more. He is the organic architect Responsible for this magnificent home up in the canopy; the coolest house in the trees That Likely Will you ever see. The unique Wilkinson Residence graces the wooded landscape outside of Portland, Oregon. This Treehouse would turn even the Swiss Family Robinson green with envy. More than Likely you too Will have a more than a twinge of desire to live in it. 


 
Spider's Leg Tree house





We're no Strangers to Germany's tree house Baumraum makers extraordinaire, so When We saw another brilliant arboreal home design from Them, We Knew We had to share it with you! The house resides at the World of Living, a showspace / amusement park for sustainable housing company WeberHaus and greets visitors with its curvy body perched atop a spider-like super skinny "legs". The unusual shape and clean lines are Baumraum's signature, and there are a lot of other cool features, so check Check it all out in our slide show. 




 Tree house Teahouse





Japanese professor of architecture Terunobu Fujimori built his boyhood dream in his father's garden in 2004. It's a Teahouse on DanceInternasional.Stilt. 



 
Tree House Restaurant








The Naha Harbor Diner in Okinawa, Japan, lies at the very top of a huge Gajumaru tree about 20 feet above the ground. Sadly, that is not a real Gajumaru tree, it's Actually concrete. Actually Customers have to get in an elevator inside the trunk to reach the restaurant.


Yellow Tree House





The Yellow Tree House by Pacific Environment Architects is built around a redwood tree, the which is over 40m high and has a 1.7m diameter at its base, located north of Auckland, New Zealand. The structure is made of plantation poplar slats and used extensive natural lighting throughout. The tree house restaurant was built as a marketing promotion for New Zealand Yellow Pages.



The concept of building a tree house on a redwood tree was quite Challenging and required a range of consultants to get your resources and building consent, and to get construction underway in the limited time of four months. The design is an organic oval form wrapped around the trunk and structurally tied up the top and bottom, with a circular arrangement, split apart on the axis with a raised floor portion. The binding timber forms the base of the main structure. Glue-laminated poplar plantation pine has been used for the slats. It is around 10m wide and 12m high with seating over 10m off the ground. The kitchen and toilets are on the ground. It has the capacity to occupy 18 people with all the comforts Such as bars, structural soundness, and unobstructed views into the valley.

Beach Tree House Rock







This Treehouse by Japanese builder Kobayahsi Takashi was constructed with the express purpose of communicating with outer space. "A sparkling beacon Among Treetops, it is easy to imagine the dome succeeding at its mission to make contact with alien life," writes Nelson. 


 
Wood Island Bogwon Tree house





The Island Wood "Bogwon" Treehouse in Washington is supported by a single tree. Engineer Jake Jacob and his team from the TreeHouseWorkshop fixed the house to the trunk with a series of limb-hugging rings. "Our trees are perched Actually, as opposed to nailed in," he toll us. "The tree Might move in the wind and We do not want to inhibit the tree to be Able to move in the wind." 


 
97-Foot Tree house







Horace Burgess's tree house may be as close to heaven as a body can get inCumberland County. It Rises 97 feet into the sky, the support provided by a live, 80-foot-tall white oak 12 feet in diameter at its base. Six other trees brace the tower-like fortress, but Burgess says its foundation is in God. Most of his materials are recycled pieces of lumber from garages, storage shedsand Barns.The tree house has 10 floors, averaging nine to 11 feet in height by Burgess's reckoning. He has never Measured its size but estimates it to be about 8.000 to 10.000 square feet. He did count the nails That he has Hammered into the wood - 258,000, give or take a Few hundred. And he guesses he has sunk about $ 12,000 into the project. 


 
Peter Lewis's Tree House






Any kid in Bridgton, Maine, would want to have Peter Lewis's Playhouse in his backyard. And no wonder. Lewis has tricked it out with a Drawbridge and two spiral staircases. Best of all, the whole thing floats 21 ft.. off the ground. Lewis, however, is no kid, and his masterpiece - a two-story, 6000-pound clubhouse slung from an Eastern white pine - bears scant resemblance to the banged-together Shacks of childhood. His Treehouse is held aloft by a well-engineered suspension system That imparts nary a scratch to the pine's bark. Hearty beams and mortise-and-Tenon joints Lend a built-for-the-ages solidity. Weather-sealed windows, insulation and a coal-burning stove deliver year-round enjoyment, even in icy Maine. 


 
Crystal River Tree House





There is always a place for fun and frivolity in architecture! David Rasmussen, Treehouse resident expert, designed and built this "Treehouse" with log columns as the main support, since the trees on the property are not strong enough to build on. 






Source

12 Cute Alerts found on the beach

12 Cute Alerts found on the beach


 The weather stone sign in the South West Thailand.


 Now you know for sure kissing is not forbidden in here.


 Do not curse sign in Virginia Beach, VA.




 No topless, in Cancun, Mexico.


 Toilets ... So that's where people go ...


 To swim or not to swim? Certainly a very confusing signing inAgadir, Morocco.




 Do not forget to bring your pants please!


 Christmas Day: Beach Day! In Bondi Beach, Sydney.


 Beware of wet floor?


 At least the owners of this nude beach are being honest and direct.Cleary They are against having any fat chicks on Their beach. ButWHO enforces this rule?


Funny sign on how to properly dress at the beach.

Source : Odde.Com

Wulingyan, Hunan (China) [You must to know]

  
Wulingyan, Hunan (China)

The Hunan region is full of dramatic landscapes and the Magnificent Wulingyan is one of Their Biggest attractions. This geological wonder is made ​​up of over 3000 limestone karsts. There are scenic Waterfalls and Some of Asia's Biggest limestone Caves.