World’s Largest Mud-Brick Building

“The walls of the Great Mosque are made of sun-baked mud bricks called ferey, a mud based mortar, and are coated with a mud plaster which gives the building its smooth, sculpted look. The walls are between 16 in. and 24 in. thick – the thickness varying with the wall’s height. Bundles of palm branches were included in the building to reduce cracking caused by frequent drastic changes in humidity and temperature and to serve as readymade scaffolding for annual repairs. The walls insulate the building from heat during the day and by nightfall have absorbed enough heat to keep the mosque warm through the night. Gutters, made of ceramic pipes, extend from the roofline and direct water drainage from the roof away from the walls. To protect the Great Mosque from water damage, in particular flooding by the Bani river, the entire structure was constructed on a raised platform 3 meters high. A set of six stairs, each decorated with pinnacles, leads to the mosque’s entrance.” w/ photos. LINK

Granada, Spain: The Exquisite Alhambra

Granada's dominant sight is the Alhambra, the last and greatest Moorish palace. For two centuries, until 1492, Granada reigned as the capital of a dwindling Moorish empire. As Christian forces pushed the Moors farther and farther south, this palace was the last hurrah of a sophisticated civilization. LINK: Youtube

Paternoster, A Cyclic Elevator

A paternoster is a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping. Passengers can step on or off at any floor they like. As a result of safety issues, many such lifts have been shut down.

First built in 1884 by the Dartford, England engineering firm of J & E Hall Ltd as the Cyclic Elevator, the name paternoster was originally applied to the device because the elevator is in the form of a loop and is thus similar to rosary beads used as an aid in reciting prayers.

LINK, Via: Youtube, Via: Blog on a Toothpick

Saks Holiday 3D video projection show_2011

Tis' the season! Enjoy Saks Fifth Avenue's 3-D holiday window projection at our flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York City!

Saks Fifth Avenue debuted their new light show projection in New York called The Snowflake and Bubble Spectacular. LINK, Via: Youtube

Artist Builds Stunning Lego Aircraft Carrier Out of 250,000 Bricks

Ed Diment, 39-year-old British Lego artist, created amazing model of the retired US aircraft carrier, USS Intrepid, using 250,000 pieces of Lego bricks.
It took Diment and his associates about a year to finish the masterpiece, which is now displayed in a Interpid Sea-Air-Space Museum, New York.
A model, which has been valued at more than 50,000 dollars, is almost seven meters long and weighs 249kg.

"Lego Intrepid floats into N.Y." LINK: Youtube


Lego artist Ed Diment brings his 22 foot lego Intrepid to go on display at the Intrepid Museum in N.Y.

"Artist Builds 22ft Lego Aircraft Carrier." LINK: Youtube


An artist has created a 22ft model of the USS aircraft carrier Intrepid using 250,000 pieces of Lego.
Ed Diment built the model, which weighs almost 40st (249kg), on board the Intrepid, the world's largest aircraft carrier, which is now a museum and is docked in New York.
Mr Diment, who has been building models with Lego since the age of three, explained how he began the huge task of building the warship, which has been valued at more than £30,000 ($50,000).

LINK

Architect Leonard Parker, 88, designed Minnesota landmarks

Leonard Parker, an award-winning Minnetonka architect who designed many well-known public buildings in Minnesota and other civic structures around the world, died of lymphoma Monday. He was 88.

Parker and his firm, Leonard Parker Associates, designed the University of Minnesota's Mondale Hall, which houses the law school, and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. They also designed the Minneapolis Convention Center and, in St. Paul, the Minnesota Judicial Center and Minnesota Public Radio's headquarters. Parker's 50-year career also included designs of the South Korea embassy in Ottawa and the U.S. embassy in Santiago, Chile.

"All kinds of people in the construction industry can put up buildings," Parker, whose Minneapolis-based firm is now known as Parker Design International, told the University of Minnesota Alumni Association for a 2005 article. "But we architects don't just build buildings. We create works of art."

After earning a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Parker worked in Michigan for six years with famed modern architect Eero Saarinen, who designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Christ Church Lutheran in South Minneapolis. It was with Saarinen that Parker learned the ethos he brought to architecture, said his son B. Aaron Parker, a fellow architect.

"He would exhaustively examine design alternatives at the beginning of the design process," B. Aaron Parker said. "He was thorough and exacting in his follow-through

and having the details the way they were supposed to be."
Parker won hundreds of awards, including the American Institute of Architects Fellowship and the Gold Medal from the group's Minnesota chapter. When it was built in 1978, the U's law school building incorporated one of the first known large-scale "green" roofs in Minnesota, B. Aaron Parker said.

Parker, a 1948 University of Minnesota graduate, taught architecture at his alma mater for 34 years.

"Few people have had as big an impact on the School of Architecture as Leonard Parker," said Thomas Fisher, dean and professor in the College of Design. "For decades, he ran a successful architectural practice and taught as an adjunct in the school, showing generations of students not only how to become skilled designers, but also how to work in ways that would help ensure their own success in the profession."

Parker's ambition to become an architect started at age 14 after he and a friend biked from their hometown of Milwaukee to Racine, Wis., according to the U of M Alumni Association article. The destination was a building his friend wanted to see.

"I didn't care about the building," Parker said in 2005. "But I thought riding a bike to Racine sounded good!"

After six hours and 45 miles, Parker and his friend arrived at the Johnson Wax headquarters, whose iconic building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

"I'd never seen a building like that," Parker said. "It was incredible! The building engineer showed us around, and he spoke of Mr. Wright with such deference. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great to design buildings like this and have people talk about you with such respect!' I made up my mind right there. I was going to be an architect."

Services for Parker will be held at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Temple Israel in Minneapolis. LINK

Real 3D Building Projector

Projections on buildings are a fascinating and innovative way of communication. Whoever is looking for an impressive, attractive, eye catching way of conveying a message (advertisement) should get familiar with a new phenomenon: 3D Projection on Buildings. LINK: Youtube

Angry Birds On A 15 Storey Building At SXSW

An awesome Angry Birds video being shown on a 20 storey building at the #NokiaConnects party in SXSW. LINK: Youtube

3D Projection Mapping promoting The Tourist in Dallas

This building projection was to promote the new movie "The Tourist" starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. The Joule Hotel in downtown Dallas hosted a party with this 3D architectural mapping projection art show, it was projected on the Praetorian Building at 1607 Main Street. The size of the projection was 80' x 80'. LINK: Youtube

A Building That Looks Like a Set of Wings

Pictured above is a design submission for the Zayed National Museum in the United Arab Emirates. The project is named after Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1918-2004), who was president of the UAE. In memory of the Sheik’s love of falconry, the main structures are shaped like wings. But they also serve a practical purpose:

The galleries are placed at the bases of five solar thermal towers. The towers heat up and act as thermal chimneys to draw cooling air currents naturally through the museum. Fresh air is captured at low level and drawn through buried ground-cooling pipes and then released into the museum’s lobby. The heat at the top of the towers works to draw the air up vertically through the galleries due to the thermal stack effect. Air vents open at the top of the wing-shaped towers taking advantage of the negative pressure on the lee of the wing profile to draw the hot air out.

Link, Via: DVICE | Photo: Foster + Partners | Via: Neatorama

A phone-cam view of Mecca from 1730 feet up on the Mecca Royal Clock Tower

Due to open in 2011 the seven star, 95 floor Mecca Royal Clock Tower Hotel will stand at 1972 feet.
Constructed by the Saudi BinLadin group the tower will become the world's second tallest building when completed. LINK: LiveLeak

Building Dancing

In Dallas, Project Bandaloop danced on the North Face of Thanksgiving tower. LINK

TOP 10 LARGEST STADIUMS IN THE WORLD

“The following is a list of sports stadiums (or stadia) ordered by their seating capacity, that is the maximum number of spectators they can accommodate. Most of the largest stadiums are used for Association football or American football.” LINK

Solar Pendulum

Mat Mets of Make: Online says:

On my recent post about building an electromagnetically assisted pendulum, commenter Accomplished chimed in to share their excellent solar pendulum build. Accomplished used the BEAM Magbot Pendulum circuit from the book Junkbots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels.
I like the sound it makes as it's starting up.

Solar pendulum build. LINK, Via: Youtube

Exploding Statium

Imagine: You are IN an exploding stadium. LINK: The Presurfer

Amazing Sculptures Made Of Playing Cards

image credit

Artist Bryan Berg is the only known person who makes a living by building playing card sculptures. Although he's a Harvard-educated architect, Berg claims he learned all his techniques the old-fashioned way - through trial and error.

I never knew a career in card stacking was something that could exist, Berg says. Even after all these years, I'm still learning how to be better at what I do. LINK: The Presurfer

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in LEGO

It took LEGO artist Matija Grguric 7 months and 15,000 bricks to recreate Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Fallingwater. It’s currently on display at a museum in Zageb, Croatia. Grguric writes:

Scale of the building is minifig, or approximate 1:40. One of the issues was how to make the stone walls of the building. The result here is made out of 4 different shades of grey (old grey and bley). Other was the terrain and vegetation. In the end I decided to make it in winter atmosphere. Snow is something I always enjoy, and I was always more of a winter type of person, so here it is – my first snowy MOC. :)

Building process spread over total of almost 7 months, and the structure is made out of more than 15000 bricks (just an approximate guess). It is placed on 6 48*48 baseplates, and measures 115 x 80 x 50 cm. It weights more than 20 kg.

Link, Via: DVICE, Via: Neatorama

Raw Video: Flames Rip Historic N.C. Courthouse

March 25, 2010 — Firefighters are battling a major fire at a historic courthouse in North Carolina. The courthouse was built in 1881 and has been under renovation. LINK: Youtube

Derelict psych hospital buildings in photos

Chris sez, "I recently visited Spring Grove hospital center in Catonsville, MD. Established is 1797, it is one of the country's oldest psychiatric facilities and it is still (at least partially) in use today. It is a fairly large campus with a variety of buildings (including its own museum). These photos are from one of the buildings that is no longer in use and has become a time capsule of sorts... storing odd relics from the site's long history. Hair dryers, exercise bikes and a variety of furniture." LINK: Boingboing

Spring Grove Hospital (Flickr)

Spring Grove

Amazing Sand Art!

Check out some of these amazing sand sculptures at a professional sand castle building competition. LINK: Youtube