Link Banana

There are no doubt hundreds of posts like this one floating around the internet, chronicalling all the small houses one can find within a few Google searchs. None the less, I really liked browsing through this one.

(via MeFi)

This bridges are literally awesome. If you don’t take a look, you’re really missing out.

(via Neatorama)

Sometimes the serendipity of my feedreader is just shocking. On the same day I saw picture of both the highest and lowest man-made objects. They are:

• Burj Debai. (via Fimoculous)
• A Siberian Diamond mine. (via Neatorama)

UPDATE (8/25/08): Or perhaps this is actually the lowest man-made object. (via Neatorama) I have mixed feelings about a hole that can’t be seen from above ground being meaninfully considered a hole.

Two stunning examples of great design that perfectly fits its beautiful setting.

• The Aurland Lookout. Just wow. (via Neatorama)
• Clingstone. Article and slideshow. Those views. (via Materialicious)

Like most commenters on the series, I feel like these pictures of well-maintained rooftop decks straddle the like between creepy and healthy voyeurism.

(via kottke)

Some stunning architectural models. Neatorama explains:

On the third floor of the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum, there is what probably is the world’s largest scale model of a city. The room-sized model of central Shanghai in 2020, as envisioned by the urban planners, fills an area larger than 100 square meters (1,000 square feet).

Attached to a story on the topic, the New York Times has an illustrated and annotated map of the boldest new buildings in Beijing. I’d seen or heard nothing of the interesting new egg-like National Theater.

(via CP)

Coober Pedy, South Australia is a cool place. (SWIDT?)

(via Coudal)

You may have seen this already, but it’s too cool not to share. A New York apartment with puzzles and mysteries built right in.

Architectural Record has an interesting run-down of the most innovative skyscraper designs that were never realized.

One problem with building new cities where nothing was: architects have no idea how to design buildings.

In Dubai, for instance, what might once have been the product of 100 years of urban growth has been compressed into a decade or so. Given such seismic shifts, even the most talented architects can seem to flounder for new models. No one wants to return to the deadly homogeneity associated with Modernism’s tabula rasa planning strategies.

There’s something about these unfinished Egyptian hotels that may be even creepier than abandoned ones.

(via kottke)

Also of note, Disney World’s Ghost Resort.

I wouldn’t claim to understand the theory behind the architecture of Arakawa and Madeline Gins or their claim that their style can make you live longer, but this house sure looks cool. Fred Bernstein’s story on the house is here (the title link is for the audio slide show).

They meet in the zeroHouse.

(via Magnetbox)

Neatorama’s got some pictures of the amazing practice of “oragamic architecture.” There’s no good way to describe it beyond that.

These are probably the most innovative and attractive attic stairs ever made. To take up less depth (I think that’s what I’d call that dimension) these stair are off-set from each other. It’s much harder to describe than to see.

(via Boing Boing)